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SPIRITISM 

AND THE CULT OF THE DEAD 

IN ANTIQUITY 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALLAS 
ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN & CO., Limited 

LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE MACMILLAN CO. OP CANADA, Ltd. 

TORONTO 



SPIRITISM 

AND THE CULT OF THE DEAD 

IN ANTIQUITY 



BY 



LEWIS BAYLES PATON, Ph.D., D.D. 

NETTLETON PROFESSOR OP OLD TESTAMENT EXEGESIS AND CRITICISM 
HARTPORD THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 



I3eto gork 

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
1921 

All rights reserved 



PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 






Copyright, 1921, 
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. 



Set up and printed. Published October, 192 1. 



NOV -2 1921 



Press of 
J. J. Little & Ives Company- 
New York, U. S. A. 



§)C!.A6301^5 



TO 

MY COLLEAGUES IN THE FACULTY OF 

HARTFORD SEMINARY FOUNDATION 

IN MEMORY OF THE YEARS OF 

WORK AND FELLOWSHIP TOGETHER 

THIS BOOK IS GRATEFULLY 
DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR 



PREFACE 

During the last quarter of a century interest in the 
phenomena of Spiritism, or Spiritualism as it is popu- 
larly called, has been growing steadily throughout the 
Western world. The Societies of Psychical Research 
in England, Germany, France, and America have gath- 
ered a vast body of data, and have subjected these to 
searching criticism. The results of these investigations 
have been published in the journals of the various socie- 
ties, and have been popularized in the writings of such 
authors as Mr. Andrew Lang, Mr. F. W. H. Myers, 
Professor James Hyslop, Professor William James. 
Whereas formerly an attitude of Sadducean scepticism 
toward all the alleged facts of Spiritism was maintained 
by religion and by rationalism alike, at the present time 
no doubt is felt concerning the existence of hypnosis, 
somnambulism, automatic action, ecstasy, significant 
dreams, visions, auditions, telepathy, telesthesia, mind- 
reading, foreboding of the future, and all the other 
abnormal phenomena of the psychical life. The only 
difference of opinion is in regard to the interpretation of 
these phenomena. Many scientific investigators think 
that they can be explained completely by the influence of 
living minds upon themselves and upon other minds; 
other equally scientific investigators hold that this expla- 
nation is unsatisfactory, and that the ancient theory of 
the activity of disembodied spirits alone accounts for all 
the facts. 

The events of the recent world-war have awakened 
widespread popular interest in the discussion of this 
question. Millions of choice young men of all civilized 

vii 



viii PREFACE 

lands have died in the conflict ; and their mourning fami- 
lies and friends have had to> face anew the ancient ques- 
tion, "If a man dieth, shall he live again?" Many who 
are destitute of religious faith, or who have found their 
faith unequal to the strain, have sought eagerly for 
psychical evidence of the continued existence of their 
beloved after death. Accordingly, the last five years 
have witnessed a wave of popular enthusiasm for the 
study of Spiritism. The lectures and the writings of such 
literary men as Sir Oliver Lodge, Sir A. Conan Doyle, 
and Mr. Maurice Maeterlinck, have been received with 
enthusiasm on both sides of the Atlantic. The planchette, 
the gazing-crystal, and the seance have been cultivated 
by multitudes with extraordinary assiduity, in the hope 
of obtaining through them scientific proof of immortality. 

Under these circumstances it has seemed to the present 
writer that it would be both interesting and timely to pre- 
sent a study of similar psychical manifestations in 
antiquity. All the occurrences that are associated with 
modern Spiritism have been known from the earliest 
times, and have been interpreted as due to the influence 
of discarnate spirits. The great historic religions of 
China, India, Babylonia, Assyria, Egypt, Israel, Greece, 
and Rome are full of so-called "spiritistic" phenomena, 
of beliefs based upon these facts, and of rites of worship 
based upon these beliefs. No scientific study of the sub- 
ject can be complete without taking into consideration the 
ancient as well as the modern evidence. The aim of the 
present work is to present in outline the main elements of 
the ancient evidence. 

In the fields of Semitic religion and of the religions of 
Israel, Greece, and Rome, the author has been able to 
work at first hand from the sources ; in the cases of the 
religions of China, India, Egypt, and some of the Indo- 
European races, he has been obliged to depend upon the 
researches of others. He has endeavoured to follow the 
best authorities, whose works are cited in the footnotes; 



PREFACE ix 

and he has submitted his results to the criticism of special- 
ists. In the chapter on Spiritism in China he gratefully 
acknowledges the assistance of Rev. Lewis Hodous, B.D., 
Professor of Chinese in the Kennedy School of Missions 
of the Hartford Seminary Foundation, and of Edward 
K. Thurlow, B.D., missionary of the Protestant Episco- 
pal Church in Wuhu, China. In the chapters on the Indo- 
Europeans he has had the expert aid of Leroy Carr 
Barrett, Ph.D., Professor of Sanskrit in Trinity College, 
Hartford, Connecticut. The chapter on Spiritism in 
Egypt would have been impossible without constant use 
of the Ancient Records of Egypt, and the Development 
of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt, by James 
Henry Breasted, Ph.D., Professor of Egyptology in the 
University of Chicago. Dr. Breasted has also kindly 
given the author the benefit of his criticism of this chap- 
ter before publication. Thanks also are due the editors 
of the Biblical World for permission to use certain mate- 
rial on the Hebrew conception of the future life, by the 
author of the present book, that appeared in successive 
numbers of this journal from January to May, 19 10. 

In matters connected with Armenian religion and 
Armenian equivalents of Indo-European words much 
help has been received from Professor Mardiros 
Harootioon Ananikian, S.T.M., of the Kennedy School 
of Missions. The chapters on "Immortality in Judaism" 
and "Immortality in the Teaching of Jesus" have received 
the valuable criticism of Professor Edward Everett 
Nourse, D.D., and of Professor Melanchthon Williams 
Jacobus, D.D., of Hartford Theological Seminary. In 
all stages of the work the author has been assisted by his 
wife, and without her aid this book could never have 
been completed. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Spiritism in Primitive Religion .... i 

II. Spiritism in China 16 

III. Spiritism among the Indo-Europeans 60 

IV. The Cult of the Dead among the Indo- 

Europeans 114 

V. Spiritism in Egypt 152 

VI. Spiritism among the Early Semites . . . 200 
VII. Spiritism in Babylonia and Assyria . . . 211 

VIII. Earliest Hebrew Conception of the Dead . 232 

IX. Babylonian Influence on Hebrew Concep- 
tions of the Dead 240 

X. Worship of the Dead by Israel .... 248 

XL Early Opposition to the Worship of the 

Dead by Israel 257 

XII. Prophetic and Legal Denial of the Vitality 

of Spirits 268 

XIII. New Theories of Immortality in Post-Exilic 

Judaism 280 

XIV. The Teaching of Jesus in Regard to Im- 
mortality 290 

Index 309 



SPIRITISM 

AND THE CULT OF THE DEAD 

IN ANTIQUITY 



SPIRITISM AND THE CULT OF 
THE DEAD IN ANTIQUITY 

CHAPTER I 

SPIRITISM IN PRIMITIVE RELIGION 

From the earliest period of human history no literary 
records have come down to us. In lack of direct historical 
evidence, accordingly, we are compelled to turn to the 
indirect testimony of comparative religion. Beliefs and 
rites that existed among all ancient peoples, and that 
still exist among savages, may safely be regarded as 
primitive. Applying this method to the study of the 
earliest conception of the future life, we reach the follow- 
ing conclusions : 

a. The Distinction between Soul and Body. — Death 
is the "king of terrors," yet it is the greatest teacher of 
our race. Without it men could never have learned the 
difference between body and spirit; and without the idea 
of spirit, God could not have been conceived, and religion 
would have been impossible. When men first began to 
think, they were confronted with the fact of death. Their 
companion, felled by a blow, or smitten by a disease, lay 
prostrate before them. In outward appearance he was 
the same, but he was unconscious of all that they did, and 
he could not respond either by word or by motion. It 
was evident even to the most rudimentary intelligence 
that an invisible something had gone out of the man. 
This intangible element the Zulus, some tribes of Ameri- 
can Indians, and other savages identify with the shadow 
cast by the body during life ; similarly the Greeks and the 



2 SPIRITISM I 

Romans spoke of the "shades." Closely allied is the 
Egyptian conception of the ka, or "double," that accom- 
panied the body during life as its exact counterpart. The 
Andaman Islanders and some other equally low races 
identify the immaterial part of man with the reflection 
seen in still water, or with the image formed in the pupil 
of another person's eye. The Australian bushmen regard 
it as a sort of fog or smoke. Most primitive peoples 
observed the fact that breathing ceases at death, and 
therefore identified the vital principle with the breath. 
In many languages the words for "spirit" denote pri- 
marily "breath," or "wind," e.g., Skr., prana; Gr., 
pneuma, anemos; Lat., spiritus, anima; Germ, and Eng., 
Geisty ghost, which are etymologically connected with 
gust. 

b. The Continued Existence of the Disembodied 
Soul. — Primitive man believed not only in the distinction 
between soul and body but also in the ability of the soul 
to survive the catastrophe of death. The Paleolithic 
cave-dwellers of the Quarternary period in Belgium and 
France were contemporary with the mammoth, the cave- 
lion, and the cave-bear. Their skulls show that they were 
nearer the apes than any existing race of man. They 
were dressed in skins, and armed only with the rudest 
undressed stone implements; yet they placed with their 
dead ornaments, tools, arms, and food for use in the 
other life, and celebrated funeral feasts in their honour. 

The same was true of the cave-dwellers of the 
Neolithic age. 1 They buried their dead in caves ; or when 
these were lacking, made dolmens, or box-like structures 
of stone slabs to receive them. In the stone that covered 
the entrance a small hole was drilled to allow the spirit 
access to the tomb and egress from it. The corpse was 
placed in the contracted position of an unborn child, with 
its head resting upon its knees, thus perhaps expressing 
the belief that death is birth into another life. In the 

1 D'Alviella, Hibbert Lectures, pp. 14-19. 



i SPIRITISM IN PRIMITIVE RELIGION 3 

caves of Mentone the bones are painted red with oligist 
or cinnabar, probably as a substitute for blood, the idea 
being widespread that blood infuses new energy into the 
dead. In the Neolithic caves of France the skulls of the 
dead are trepanned. Whether this was intended to 
facilitate the entrance and egress of the spirit, or to make 
an amulet for the survivors, it bears witness to some 
sort cf cult of the dead. In the Neolithic caves of 
Palestine, that were inhabited by a pre-Semitic race, 
offerings of food and drink were deposited with the dead 
and their bones were used as amulets. 2 Anthropologists 
are agreed that no savage race exists which does not 
believe in some sort of immortality and practise some 
rites in honour of the dead. 3 In view of these facts, it is 
evident that immortality was one of the original beliefs 
of our race. 

In the creation of this belief the phenomena of sleep 
and of dreams must have played a large part. In sleep, 
as in death, the soul apparently leaves the body; yet it 
presently returns, and consequently must have continued 
to live during the interval of unconsciousness. In dreams 
one seems to visit distant regions. The universal savage 
interpretation of this experience is that the soul actually 
leaves the, body and journeys to these places, for to the 
savage dreams are just as real as waking experiences. It 
is dangerous to waken one suddenly, for the absent spirit 
may not have time to get back to the body. In swoons 
also, or unconsciousness resulting from disease, the soul 
apparently leaves the body; yet it returns, if the man 
recovers. If the soul can survive such temporary separa- 
tions from the body, why may it not survive a permanent . ^^ 
separation? The savage believes that it does. When * 
death occurs, he at first refuses to recognise anything 
different from sleep or a swoon. He tries to coax the 

7 Palestine Exploration Fund, Quarterly Statement, 1902, pp. 347ff. 
*Brinton, Religions of Primitive Peoples, p. 69; Hastings, Encyclopedia of 
Religion and Ethics, art. "Ancestor Worship." 



4 SPIRITISM i 

soul back; and only when dissolution begins, does he at 
last admit that death has occurred. From this point of 
view death differs from sleep or swoon only in the fact 
that the soul has lost the power, or the wish, to return to 
its body. It does not perish through death any more than 
through transient states of unconsciousness. Primitive 
man was unable to think of himself as ceasing to exist; 
and, strictly speaking, it is impossible even for us of to- 
day. In many languages there is no word for "die," only 
for "be killed." In dreams also one saw the forms of 
those who had died, and the inference was natural that 
their spirits survived and returned to visit friends. All 
the phenomena of apparitions, levitation, hypnotism, 
clairvoyance, etc., that are known to modern psychical 
research, and that are given a spiritistic interpretation by 
many today, were known to primitive man, and doubtless 
helped also to give support to the belief in the continued 
existence of the disembodied spirit. 4 

c. Powers Retained by the Soul in Death. — Although, 
according to the antique conception, the dead lost their 
physical powers, they lost none of their higher spiritual 
powers of knowledge, feeling, and will. Ancestors re- 
tained a keen interest in their posterity and actively inter- 
vened in their affairs. Enemies preserved their original 
hostility to their foes. The dead were conscious of events 
that occurred on earth. Those who had met an untimely 
fate remembered that fact and were unhappy in the other 
world. The spirits of murdered men, of those that had 
died in youth, of women that had died in childbirth, and 
of those that had left no descendants, could not rest. 

The belief was universal that, under certain conditions, 
the dead had the power of appearing to the living. 5 
When thus appearing, the spirits were believed to retain 
the semblance of their bodies at the time of death. In 

4 Lubbock, Prehistoric Times,* pp. 144ff. ; Tylor, Primitive Culture, ch. xi-xvii; 
Jevons, Introduction to the History of Religion, p. 43ff. ; Frazer, Golden Bough, 2 
i. p. 225 ff. 

6 Lang, The Making of Religion, p. 138. 



I SPIRITISM IN PRIMITIVE RELIGION 5 

the Odyssey (xi. 40) those who have fallen in battle ap- 
pear to Ulysses "mangled by the spear and clad in bloody 
armour." The same belief lingers in the ghost-lore of 
modern Europe, and even the most enlightened Christian 
finds it impossible to think of his beloved dead otherwise 
than as they last appeared in life. Returning spirits could 
speak in audible tones, though with weak and trembling 
voices that corresponded to their ethereal nature. Thus 
in the Odyssey (xi. 43) the ghosts approach Ulysses 
"with gibbering cries." 

d. Powers Gained by the Soul in Death. — Spirits, al- 
though haunting their bodies, were not restricted to them. 
They could move at will with lightning-like rapidity to 
any place where they wished to manifest themselves. 
They also possessed the extraordinary power of entering 
new bodies. 

1. They Could Occupy Inanimate Objects. — Accord- 
ing to primitive theology, spirits could use as their in- 
struments material things, such as sticks and stones, caus- 
ing in them motion, or endowing them with magical 
powers. In this case a talisman was produced. They 
could also animate an object by taking up their abode in 
it. In this case the result was a fetish. The idea was 
widespread that they preferred to occupy images made in 
the likeness of their former bodies. Thus in Egypt 
statues of the deceased were multiplied in tombs that his 
ka, or "double," might find abundant opportunity to take 
up its abode. 

2. Spirits Could Take Possession of Animals. — So 
widespread was this belief among primitive peoples that 
Wilken, Tylor, and other anthropologists have con- 
jectured that it is the explanation of totemism, or the 
worship of animals as the ancestors of tribes. 6 

3. Spirits Could Occupy the Bodies of Living Men. — 
This might take the form either of obsession, resulting 

6 Crooke, in Hastings, Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, art. "Ancestor 
Worship," p. 430. 



6 SPIRITISM i 

in disease or insanity, or of possession, resulting in the 
imparting of the higher knowledge, skill or power of the 
spirit. Among all ancient peoples, it was believed that 
spirits of the dead not only retained the knowledge 
possessed by them in life, but also acquired new and 
greater knowledge. The abnormal powers of the sub- 
conscious soul, such as crystal-gazing, motor-automatism, 
thought-transference, telepathy, telesthesia, and fore- 
boding of the future, were ascribed to their influence. 7 
They were therefore believed to be far wiser than mor- 
tals, and they were consulted for guidance in the affairs 
of life and for oracles concerning the future. 

e. Powers Lost by the Soul in Death. — The identifi- 
cation of the soul with the breath, shadow,, reflection, or 
echo of the living man, led naturally to the conception 
that it was vague and unsubstantial. Early races and 
savages have uniformly regarded the soul as a small, 
feeble being, ordinarily invisible, inaudible, and intangi- 
ble, that is unable to take care of itself, and that needs 
to be sheltered and guarded until, so to speak, it "finds 
itself" in the spirit-world. The sorcerers of Greenland 
describe the soul as a pale, soft thing, without nerves, 
without bones, without flesh; when one would seize it, 
one feels nothing. 8 When Achilles would embrace the 
shade of Patroclus, it passes through his hands like 
smoke. 

" 'Dost thou command me thus? I shall fulfil 
Obediently thy wish; yet draw thou near, 
And let us give at least a brief embrace, 
And so indulge our grief.' He said, and stretched 
His longing arms to clasp the shade. In vain; 
Away like smoke it went with gibbering cry, 
Down to the earth. Achilles sprang upright, 
Astonished, clapped his hands, and sadly said, 
'Surely there dwell within the realm below 
Both soul and form, though bodiless.' " 9 

7 See Lang, The Making of Religion, chaps, iv-v. 

• D'Alviella, Hibbert Lectures, p. 78. 

• Iliad, xxiii. 95-104 (Bryant's translation). 



I SPIRITISM IN PRIMITIVE RELIGION 7 

In like manner Ulysses finds the shade of his mother 
wholly unsubstantial. 

"She spake; I longed to take into my arms 
The soul of my dead mother. Thrice I tried, 
Moved by a strong desire, and thrice the form 
Passed through them like a shadow or a dream. 

• •••••• 

I spake, and then my reverend mother said: — 
'Believe not that Jove's daughter Proserpine 
Deceives thee. 'Tis the lot of all our race 
When they are dead. No more the sinews bind 
The bones and flesh, when once from the white bones 
The life departs. Then like a dream the soul 
Flies off, and flits about from place to place.' " 10 

Even the souls of heroes are so feeble that they cannot 
be roused to activity until they have drunk the fresh, hot 
blood of victims poured into the sacrificial trench. 11 
According to iElius Spartianus, 12 the Emperor Hadrian 
shortly before his death described his soul as "a dear 
little wandering being, the guest and companion of the 
body." The belief that spirits are pale, unsubstantial 
phantoms still lingers in the modern idea of ghosts. 

/. Relation of the Disembodied Soul to Its Body. — 
Another general belief of primitive peoples is that the 
soul continues to maintain a relation to the dead body. 
When the flesh has disappeared, the ghost clings to the 
skull or the bones; and when these have vanished, it 
haunts the grave where its ashes are buried. Survivals 
of these ideas are seen in the veneration of relics of the 
saints in Buddhist and Roman Catholic countries, and in 
the belief that ghosts appear chiefly in graveyards, or in 
places where murders have been committed. The idea 
is wide-spread that an injury to a dead body is also an 
injury to the departed spirit. Hence the universal cus- 

10 Odyssey, xi. 204-221 (Bryant's translation). 

11 Odyssey, xi. 95. 

33 Hadrianus, Cap. 25, in Scriptores Historic Augusta. 



8 SPIRITISM i 

torn among primitive peoples and savages of mutilating 
the corpses of enemies. Thus every one of the Greeks 
who passes the body of Hector inflicts a blow upon it, 13 
and Achilles drags it in the dust at the tail of his 
chariot. 14 

This connection of the spirit with the corpse explains 
the vast importance attached by primitive races to burial. 
The Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans, and all other 
ancient peoples believed that the soul could not rest unless 
its body was properly entombed. 15 Refusal of burial was 
an injury that was inflicted only upon criminals, or upon 
the most hated enemies. Violation of a tomb insured 
the disquieting of the spirit that dwelt within. 16 

Closely connected with the idea that the ghost haunts 
the corpse is the idea that it still needs food, drink, and 
other necessities of life, and that these must be placed 
either in the grave or upon it. From the earliest times 
such offerings were deposited with the dead, and the cus- 
tom still lingers in civilised lands in modified forms such 
as jewelry, lights, flowers and wreaths. 

g. The General Estimate of Death. — From the fore- 
going survey it appears that primitive man believed that 
the soul survived death, and that it gained such super- 
human powers that it was to be classed with the gods 
rather than with men, and was entitled to receive divine 
homage ; yet in spite of these facts, he did not look for- 
ward with any satisfaction to death as an enlargement of 
his powers. On the contrary, it was regarded by him as 
an unmixed evil. So important was the body that exist- 
ence without it seemed shadowy and worthless. Thus in 
the Odyssey (xi. 487ft. ) Achilles says: "I would be a 
labourer on earth, and serve for hire some man of mean 
estate who makes scant cheer, rather than reign o'er all 
who have gone down to death." Death was not a going 

18 Iliad, xxii. 371. 

"Ibid. 395ff. 

18 Odyssey, xi. 72. 

16 De la Saussaye, Manual of the Science of Religion, p. 1 14. 



i SPIRITISM IN PRIMITIVE RELIGION 9 

to the gods whom one had loved and honoured in life, but 
a passing out of the sphere of their care and interest. 
Their rewards and punishments were distributed in this 
world. In the other world moral distinctions vanished, 
and all were reduced to one common level of misery. The 
primitive belief in spirits, accordingly, was not a belief 
in immortality in any true sense. It was a belief in* the 
continued existence of the soul, but that existence was so 
vague and shadowy that it was destitute of value. To 
become a ghost could not be an object of desire for any 
man. The conception of God needed to be deepened and 
broadened immensely before an adequate idea of immor- 
tality could be formed; nevertheless, these crude begin- 
nings were the foundation on which the structure of a 
better faith was destined to rise. 

h. The Cult of the Dead. — Because of the powers that 
have just been described the dead were regarded by all 
ancient peoples as supernatural beings, to whom the same 
sort of worship should be paid that was rendered to the 
gods and to other classes of spirits. 17 Veneration of 
spirits of the dead is seen in rites of mourning, in care 
of the corpse, in bringing of sacrifice, and in offering of 
prayers. 

1. Removal of Garments. — The custom was wide- 
spread in antiquity, and is still found among savages, of 
removing the garments entirely, or in part, as a sign of 
mourning. As to the meaning of this custom there is a 
difference of opinion. Ewald, Leyrer and Kamphausen 
regard it as a spontaneous expression of grief; but it is 
hard to see any psychological connection between grief 
and nakedness. Schwally thinks that it was the costume 
of slaves and of captives, and hence was a token of 
humility toward the spirits. Frey takes it as a sign of 
submission to the gods who have sent death into the 

17 See Spencer, Principles of Sociology, I. chaps, xx, xxv; Tylor, Primitive 
Culture, chap, xiv; De la Saussaye, Manual of the Science of Religion, pp. 112 ff.; 
Jevons, Introduction to the History of Religion, chap, xv; Hastings, Encyclo- 
pedia of Religion and Ethics, arts. "Ancestor-Worship," "Animism." 



io SPIRITISM i 

family. Frazer holds that it is< intended to disguise the 
survivors from the ghost of the dead, or to awaken its 
pity, so that it will do no harm. Far more likely is the 
view of Stade, Benzinger and Jastrow that nakedness, or 
a simple loin-cloth, was the primitive dress of man that 
was retained in mourning because it was a religious exer- 
cise. Religion is naturally conservative, and the sacred 
costume of the present is the everyday dress of the past. 
In Egypt the priests of the Middle Empire wore the 
dress of the Old Empire, and those of the New Empire, 
that of the Middle Empire. The vestments of the 
Roman Catholic clergy of today are the common gar- 
ments of the later Roman Empire. Modern savages per- 
form their religious rites in less clothing than they wear 
on ordinary occasions, the reason being that this was the 
sacred dress of their forefathers. 

2. Covering the Head. — In singular contrast to the 
custom of stripping the body was the other custom of 
covering the head or mouth, or laying the hand upon the 
mouth. The theory that this was due to a desire to 
conceal one's grief from bystanders presupposes a mod- 
ern Occidental point of view. Others think that it was 
intended to disguise one from the spirits, or to protect 
one's mouth and nose so that they might not enter into 
one's body; but this assumes less intelligence in the spirits 
than primitive man believed them to possess. Still others 
regard it as a conventional substitute for cutting the 
hair. 18 The most natural interpretation of this cere- 
mony is that it was designed originally to protect one 
from inadvertently seeing the ghost that lingered near 

/ the corpse. Death might ensue if one saw a ghost just 
as if one saw a god. 19 

3. Cuttings in the Flesh. — As W. Robertson Smith 
has shown 20 cuttings in the flesh, whether practised in the 

18 See below, 4. 
18 Cf. Ex. 33:20. 
20 Religion of the Semites, pp. 322ff. 



i SPIRITISM IN PRIMITIVE RELIGION n 

name of gods or of spirits, were designed to make a sacri- 
fice of blood, and so to establish a covenant. In the case 
of ghosts such offerings were peculiarly acceptable as 
supplying strength to their feeble forms. 21 Tattooing, 
which often accompanied the letting of blood, was 
designed to mark one as a permanent worshipper of the 
spirit to which the blood was offered. 

4. Cutting the Hair. — This rite cannot be regarded 
as a natural expression of grief, nor can it have been 
designed to deceive the ghost so that it would not molest 
one, nor can it have been, as Frazer and Jevons think, a 
process of disinfection from taboo, since it occurred 
before the funeral. It can only be interpreted as an act 
of worship to the dead. 22 Hair-offerings to deities are 
common throughout the world, and are analogous to 
blood-offerings, the strength being supposed to reside 
in the hair. 23 

5. Covering with Dust or Ashes. — In this case also 
the theories of natural emotion, of humiliation, and of 
disguising one's self from the spirits, are all inadequate. 
This can be only a symbolic act designed to express the 
thought that one wishes to be buried with the dead and so 
to maintain communion with them. Jastrow 24 thinks 
that dust or earth put on the head is a survival of the 
custom of carrying earth on the head in baskets in order 
to cover the corpse with a mound, but this will not explain 
the frequent practice of wallowing in the dust as an act 
of mourning. 

6. Fasting. — Fasting as part of the ritual of mourn- 
ing is another primitive human custom. Its origin is 
difficult to trace. A natural reluctance to take food when 
one is sorrowing does not explain the fasting of people 

21 Cf. Jevons, Introduction to the History of Religion, pp. 191ff. 

22 Cf. Iliad, xxiii, ISOff., where Achilles shears his hair as an offering to 
Patroclus. 

23 Cf. Ju. 16:17. 

24 "Dust and Ashes as Symbols of Mourning," Journ. Am. Orient. Soc, xx. 
pp. 133ff. 



12 SPIRITISM i 

who are in no way related to the deceased, nor does it 
explain the feast which often follows the burial. Frey 
thinks that it is an act of humility, like the ritual fasts, 
designed to propitiate the wrath of the gods who have 
sent death into the family; but among most peoples the 
uncleanness of death prohibits the worship of the gods in 
connection with funeral ceremonies. Others think that 
it is designed to awaken the pity of the spirits so that they 
will not harm the survivors, but fear of the spirits of 
relatives is by no means universal. Frazer, Jevons and 
Griineisen hold that death in a house rendered every- 
thing taboo, so that food could not be eaten until the 
corpse was removed. W. R. Smith suggests that fasting 
was a ritual preparation for the sacrificial feast that fol- 
lowed, like the Roman Catholic fasting before com- 
munion. Spencer, Lubbock, Tylor, and Buhl regard it 
as a means of inducing ecstasy, in which one held inter- 
course with the spirits. 25 In any case it is unquestionable 
that fasting was a ritual act. 

7. Disposal of the Corpse. — The belief noted above 
in the continued connection of the disembodied soul with 
its dead body led all primitive peoples to care for the 
corpse as an act of homage to the departed spirit. Inhu- 
mation, mummification, and cremation were the chief 
methods of disposal of the dead. The first protected the 
body from being devoured by beasts or birds, the second 
preserved it as a permanent dwelling for the spirit, the 
third etherealized it so that it might become a more 
fitting habitation for its former tenant. With the dead 
were buried, or burned, his food, clothing, utensils, 
weapons and ornaments that he might use them in the 
other world. The graves of ancestors were regarded as 
holy spots where their descendants met at stated times 
to perform religious rites in their honour. 

8. Sacrifice. — By all primitive peoples sacrifices were 

28 Cf. Exod. 34:28; Dan. 9:3; 10:3. 



i SPIRITISM IN PRIMITIVE RELIGION 13 

offered upon the grave in addition to the gifts of food, 
drink, etc., that were buried with the corpse. Thus in 
the Odyssey (xi. 28-46) Ulysses pours out to the shades 
the blood of sheep, and makes libations of milk, honey, 
wine, and water, on which white meal is sprinkled. 26 

Intimately connected with sacrifices to the dead were 
funeral feasts, in which one partook of the offerings, 
and thus sealed one's communion with the spirits of the 
departed. Such feasts have lasted down to modern times 
in many countries where their original connection with 
sacrifice has been forgotten. 

Sacrifice to the dead explains the importance attached 
by all ancient peoples to male descendants. Among the 
Chinese, the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans, and 
other patriarchally organised races, the duty of sacri- 
ficing to a father devolved upon his oldest son. If there 
were no son, there would be no offerings, and the ghost 
could not rest. 

9. Prayer to the Dead. — Here belong laments, which 
were more than mere cries of grief, being often elaborate 
compositions addressed to the departed, deploring his 
loss, and begging him to be near and to bless his family. 
At the time of sacrifice at the grave regular prayers were 
offered to the spirits as to other deities. Necromancy 
also, which was universal in antiquity, was a form of 
prayer in which the spirits were invoked to come and help 
one with their superior knowledge or skill. 

i. Relation of Ancestor-worship to Religion in General. 
— From the foregoing survey it appears that the cult of 
the dead is one of the most ancient and most widely- 
spread forms of human worship. Starting with this fact, 
a number of ancient writers formulated the theory that 
ancestor-worship was the origin of all human religion. 
This theory appears as early as Genesis, chapters 4-5. 
Here both in J's and in P's lists of the descendants of 

28 See Jevons, Introduction, pp. Slff.; D'Alviella, Hibbert Lectures, p. 17; De la 
Saussaye, Manual, pp. 114f. 



^ 



-A 



i 4 SPIRITISM i 

Adam Semitic gods are regarded as forefathers of man- 
kind and as discoverers of the arts. The work De Syria 
Dea, ascribed to Lucian, which certainly depends 
throughout on Semitic sources, shows the same point of 
view. The idea that the gods are all men who have been 
deified after death for the services that they have ren- 
dered to humanity was first given currency by Euhemerus, 
a contemporary of Alexander the Great, and hence is 
known as Euhemerism. It gained favour particularly 
among the Romans at the beginning of the Christian era, 
and found a fanatical advocate in Philo Byblius. This 
theory has been revived by Herbert Spencer, 27 who is 
followed by Grant Allen in his Evolution of the Idea of 
God, but it has not won the approval of the majority of 
students of comparative religion because in all early 
and savage religions numerous nature-spirits are found 
whose names and characteristics are entirely different 
from those of spirits of the dead. 28 A truer view of the 
relation of ancestor-worship to religion is that the con- 
ception of spirit was first gained through the fact of 
death, and was then extended to other beings than man. 
The recognition of a distinction between soul and body 
in man furnished a basis for the interpretation of nature 
as a whole. Every striking physical object, everything 
that could do something, or was believed to be able to 
do something, was supposed to be animated by a spirit 
that could leave it temporarily or permanently, just as the 
soul left the body. Thus, besides spirits of the dead, 
primitive man came to worship a multitude of other 
spiritual beings that manifested themselves in all sorts 
of phenomena. These nature-spirits were not conceived 
as ghosts of the dead, but they were beings of a similar 
character to disembodied spirits and might be called by 

37 Principles of Sociology, i. p. 411. 

28 See Hartland, Legend of Perseus, i. 203; A. Lang, Myth, Ritual, and Religion, 
1899, i. 308ff. ; W. Crooke, art. "Ancestorworship" in Hastings, Encyclopedia of 
Religion and Ethics, i. p. 427. 



I SPIRITISM IN PRIMITIVE RELIGION 15 

the same general names. Thus arose what is often called 
Animism, but which is preferably called Polydaemonism, 
or the worship of a host of damons (dainoves) , or 
minor divinities, in contrast to Polytheism, or the wor- 
ship of a few great gods, and Monotheism, or the wor- 
ship of one God. 



CHAPTER II 

SPIRITISM IN CHINA 

a. Sources of Knowledge in Regard to Chinese An- 
cestor-worship. — Our earliest sources of information in 
regard to the religion of China are the five Classics and 
the four Canonical Books. The first of the Classics 
is the Shu-king, 1 or Book of Historical Documents. 
It is a collection of incidents, addresses, counsels and 
decrees beginning with Yao (traditional date 2356 B.C.), 
and extending down through the Hsia dynasty (2205- 
1766), Shang dynasty (1 766-1 122), Chou dynasty 
( 1 122-249) • The Shi-king , or Book of Poetry, contains 
poems that date from the same early period as the Shu~ 
king. It is one of the most ancient and most precious 
treasures of the world's literature. The Yih-king, or 
Book of Permutations, is originally a collection of sixty- 
four hexagrams, which in their turn are combinations of 
eight trigrams, and of parallel lines partly whole and partly 
broken. It was intended for purposes of divination; but 
the manner of its use has been lost, although it has given 
rise to much ingenious speculation. The Li-ki, or Rites 
and Ceremonies, is a compilation of ritual texts, partly of 
high antiquity, and partly of later origin, that was not 
completed in its present form before the second century 
of our era. K'ung Fu Tzu (Confucius) (551-478 B.C.) 
is traditionally regarded as the compiler of three of 
these works, and there is no reason to doubt the substan- 
tial correctness of this belief. To Confucius h imse lf 
is ascribed the writing of the fifth Classic^ tne 

1 In the transliteration of Chinese words an effort has been made to con- 
form to the usage of H. A. Giles' Chinese-English Dictionary, London, 1912. 

16 



ii SPIRITISM IN CHINA 17 

Ch'un-ch'iu, or Spring and Autumn, a brief history of 
the state of Lu from 722 to 481 B.C. The Tso- 
chuan is a commentary on the Ch'un-ch'iu. The Chou-li 
is a record of the rites of the Chou dynasty. The I4i is 
an ancient work on ceremonial and etiquette. 

The four Books are the Lun-yii, or Sayings of Con- 
fucius, a collection of questions, answers and discussions 
between Confucius and his disciples, put together about 
a century after Confucius, but containing a genuine tra- 
dition; the Ta-hsioh, or Great Learning, a treatise on the 
cultivation of wisdom in individuals as the sole means of 
laying a secure foundation for the state; the Chung-yung, 
or Doctrine of the Mean, a more philosophic treatise on 
<rco(f>poavvr], or virtue as the balance between two vicious 
extremes; and Meng-tzu, the Teaching of Mencius, a 
disciple of Confucius. 2 

Other sources for the religion of China are the com- 
mentaries on the Classics, the later literature, and the 
existing customs of the people. 3 

b. Distinction between Soul and Body. — The distinc- 
tion between soul and body is fundamental to Chinese 
thought. In sleep the soul is believed to leave the body 
temporarily, wander around, and see the things that are 
experienced in dreams. It comes back immediately when 
the sleeper is awakened. In swoons the soul wanders 
farther from its body and has more difficulty in finding 
its way back. The relatives then wave a garment on a 

2 The Canonical Books and the Classics are translated by J. Legge, The Chinese 
Classics, 1861; the Li-ki, in Sacred Books of the East, xxvii-xxviii, 1885. The 
I-li, or Conventional Rites, is translated by J. Steele, 2 vols., London, 1917. The 
references in the following pages are to Legge's translations. 

3 The most elaborate work on the subject is J. J. M. de Groot, The Religious 
System of China, vi vols., 1892-1910 (devoted almost exclusively to ancestor- 
worship). Another elaborate work is H. Dore, Recherches sur les Superstitions en 
Chine, iv. vols. 1911-1912. Other useful works of a more popular character 
are J. Legge, The Religions of China, 1880; J. Ross, The Original Religion of 
China, 1909; W. J. Clennell, The Historical Development of Religion in China, 
1917; J. Edkins, Religion in China, 2 1878; W. Grube, Religion und Kultus der 
Chinesen, 1910; H. A. Giles, Religions of Ancient China, 1918; J. J. M. de 
Groot, The Religion of the Chinese, 1910; G. F. Moore, History of Religions, 
i. chaps, i-v. ; E. W. Hopkins, The History of Religions, chaps, xiv-xv. 



1 8 SPIRITISM ii 

bamboo pole on the housetop and beat a gong to attract 
the attention of the errant soul and help it to get its 
bearings. If the swoon persists, still more strenuous 
efforts are made to call the spirit back; and in case of 
death, the shouting is not given up until it is certain that 
all efforts are useless. An absent spirit of a living, man 
may appear as a phantom to another person, or even to 
himself ! and such an apparition is regarded as an omen 
of impending death. 4 

c. Continued Existence of the Soul after Death. — 
The soul which can survive a temporary separation from 
its body can also survive the permanent separation of 
death. This is asserted repeatedly in the Confucian 
literature, and is implied in the activity of spirits of the 
dead and in the worship of the dead of which we shall 
see more presently. 

Apparently the most ancient name for "soul" is kuei. 
The ideograph which represents this is a radical which 
goes back to the very invention of Chinese writing. The 
etymology and primitive meaning of the term are uncer- 
tain. Native lexicographers connect it with kuei meaning 
"to return." Kuei would then be the same as the French 
term for "ghost," revenant, that is, a spirit that comes 
back to its body. Like our word "soul," kuei is limited 
to spirits of human beings either living or dead. 

Another name for the soul is shen. The sign for this 
is composite, and therefore belongs to a later stage of the 
written language. This is the generic term for "spirit" 
of every sort whether in nature or in man. Its funda- 
mental meaning is also obscure. Its phonetic (repre- 
sented again by a different sign) means "stretch out." 

Out of these two words the compound kuei-shen is 
formed which is the most frequent name for spirits of the 
dead in the Confucian literature. The reverse compound 
shen-kuei is of rare occurrence. Still another word for 

*De Groot, i. p. 243; iv. p. 96; Dore, iv. 323-331. 



ii SPIRITISM IN CHINA 19 

"spirit" is ch'i, "breath," which corresponds to the termi- 
nology of other primitive races (see pp. 69ft. ), repre- 
sented also by a composite sign. Still other terms are hun 
and p'o, whose signs are derivatives from the radical 
kuei; also ming, "light." 

d. Powers Retained by the Soul in Death. — No one in 
China seems ever to have questioned the continued exist- 
ence of the soul after its separation from its body, but 
doubts were often expressed whether it retained the 
powers of knowing, feeling, and doing that it possessed 
during life. Confucius himself maintained an agnostic 
attitude on this subject, and discouraged questions about 
it from his disciples. In the Sayings of Confucius, VII. 
xx, it is recorded that he avoided speaking on four sub- 
jects : prodigies, feats of strength, rebellions, and spirits. 
In XL xi we read: "Chi Lu asked about serving the 
spirits (of the dead). The Master said: 'While you 
are not able to serve men, how can you serve their 
spirits?' Chi Lu added: 'I venture to ask about death.' 
He was answered, 'While you do not know life, how can 
you know death?' ' Another saying preserved by the 
Chia Yu y or Talks of Confucius, II. Art. 1, was 
called forth by the question of Tzu-k'ung, whether or not 
the dead knew the services that were rendered them. 
Confucius replied: "If I were to say the dead have such 
knowledge, I am afraid that filial sons and dutiful grand- 
sons would ruin themselves in paying the last offices to 
the departed; and if I were to say that the dead have 
not such knowledge, I am afraid that unfilial sons would 
leave their parents unburied." A similar utterance in 
the Li-ki, II. i. iii. 3, says: "If we were to deal with 
our dead as if life were really extinct in them, we should 
be inhumane; but if we were to treat them as if they were 
quite alive, we should betray great ignorance ; and there- 
fore neither may we do." 

These utterances sound very sceptical, still Confucius 
himself said, according to the Li-ki (VII. i. 7) : "They 



20 SPIRITISM n 

look up to the sky, and bury the body in the earth. 
The corporeal p'o goes downward, and the conscious 
ch'i is on high." We are told of Confucius that "he sac- 
rificed to the spirits as though the spirits were present," 
and he consistently enjoined the cult of the dead upon his 
disciples, Whatever doubts the learned may have cher- 
ished, the mass of the people in all ages have firmly 
believed that the dead retain all the powers that they 
possessed in life, that they are comfortable or uncomfort- 
able in the tomb, that they know when offerings are 
brought to them, and miss them when they are neglected, 
that they are interested in the affairs of their descendants, 
assisting the filial and good, and punishing the unfilial 
and wicked. In a lament of Hsu an Wang the king 
exclaims: "From above there is no hope, no help from 
around us. The host of dukes and officials of the past 
afford me no assistance. My father ! My mother ! My 
ancestors ! How can you endure to see this !" 5 The 
whole ritual of ancestor-worship implies that the dead 
have the same intellectual powers as the living. The 
dead are thought to live much the same sort of life that 
they have known on earth. They have the same social 
and political organisation, and follow the same occupa- 
tions. Emperors still rule, and are surrounded by their 
officers and their courts, while men of low degree occupy 
the same stations in the other world. 6 

e. Powers Gained by the Soul in Death. — The belief 
is universal in China that spirits of the dead enter upon 
a higher form of existence and exert powers that they 
did not possess during their earthly life. In the Doctrine 
of the Mean, chap, xvi, Confucius says: "How abun- 
dantly do spiritual beings display their powers! They 
cause all men under heaven to fast and purify themselves, 
and put on their richest dresses to engage in their sacri- 
fices. Then like overflowing water they seem to be over 

8 Shi-king, III. iii. Ode 4. 
• See de Groot, v. chap. xv. 



II 



SPIRITISM IN CHINA 21 



their heads, and on the right and left (of their worship- 
pers)." In the Shi-king, III. iii. Ode 2, we are told: 

"The spirits come, but when and where 
No one beforehand can declare. 
Therefore we should not spirits slight, 
But ever live as in their sight." 

Of the good King Wen the Shi-king, III. i. Ode 6, says : 

"Unseen by men, he still felt seen 
By spirits always near. 
Unweariedly did he maintain 
His virtue pure and free from stain." 7 

Another passage says: u The approach of the shen cannot 
be calculated, they should therefore never be regarded 
contemptuously or treated with neglect." In another ode 
we are told: "Our ancestors descend in their majesty. 
Their shen enjoy the offerings, and their filial descendant 
obtains their blessing. Him will they reward with great 
bounties and endless life." "The shen come noiselessly, 
and repay their host with great happiness and with life 
for a myriad years." "The shen go away noiselessly." 8 
These passages assert omnipresence and omniscience of 
the shen, or at least multipresence and multiscience. 
Some of the more important ways in which spirits mani- 
fest their superhuman powers are as follows: 

1. Spirits Can Occupy and Control Inanimate Ob- 
jects. — Immediately after death a tablet or banner is 
prepared inscribed with the name of the deceased. This 
is believed to be occupied by his spirit, and is carried with 
the corpse to the grave, where it is buried in order to se- 
cure the residence of the spirit in its tomb. The tomb- 
stone bearing the name of the departed is also regarded 
as in a peculiar sense the abode of the spirit, and there- 
fore is the centre of the posthumous rites celebrated at 

T Translation of J. Legge, Religions of China, pp. 94-95. 
8 Shi-king, II. vi. Ode 5, vss. 3, 5. 



22 SPIRITISM ii 

the grave. The ancestral tablet is another dwelling-place 
of the spirit. This is mentioned as early as the Chou 
dynasty, and probably existed long before that time. 
The sign for ancestral tablet (shen-chu) is a combina- 
tion of the radical for "stone" and the phonetic for 
"lord" or "pillar." This suggests that it was originally a 
miniature tombstone designed for ceremonies in the home 
or in the ancestral hall instead of at the grave. The 
modern form consists of a wooden base with a socket in 
which is inserted an upright piece with a groove near the 
top into which another upright piece is fitted. It bears 
a close resemblance to the ordinary Chinese tombstone. 
It has written upon it the words, "Seat of the Spirit," 
"Seat of the Soul," "Lodging-place of the Spirit," or 
"Spirit Throne," also the name and titles of the owner 
and the date of his birth. The inscription is left incom- 
plete until after the interment, and then some high liter- 
ary official adds a dot that is necessary to complete one 
of the characters, and the tablet is placed in the shrine 
along with those of other ancestors. Before these tab- 
lets offerings are presented and announcement is made 
of all important events in the life of the family. 9 

Through the control of inanimate objects spirits of the 
dead can reveal their will to men. The most ancient 
form of omen-giving of this sort was through the tor- 
toise shell. The inner side of the upper shell of a tor- 
toise was coated with ink, and it was held over a fire until 
cracks in the form of lines appeared in the pigment. 
These were controlled by the spirits in order to disclose 
their wishes. The sign for this sort of divination, pu } 
is one of the primitive Chinese radicals. In combination 
with k'ou, "mouth," this forms the sign for the interpre- 
tation of the shell-oracles. This sort of divination is 
first mentioned in the reign of Shun (2224 B.C.). When 
he wished to select a successor to the throne, he con- 

•Dore, i. 97-106. 



ii SPIRITISM IN CHINA 23 

suited with his ministers and with the people, and they 
unanimously nominated Yii. He then submitted the 
matter to the spirits through the tortoise-oracle and they 
confirmed the choice. 10 P'an-keng (1400 B.C.) used the 
same method in determining the site of a new capital. 11 
The Duke of Chou (1100 B.C.) used the tortoise shell 
to find out whether his brother Wu would live, and 
received a favourable answer. 12 He also used it to deter- 
mine the site of a new capital. 13 

Another method of communication used by the spirits 
was through stalks of the shih, or yarrow plant. Through 
the falling of pieces of different length and the diagrams 
that they formed omens were given. The interpretation 
of these omens seems to have been the main purpose of 
the Yih-king, or Book of Permutations. 1 * This form of 
divination was used by Shun in connection with the tor- 
toise shell mentioned above. Both of these oracular 
media have long since gone out of use. 

A favourite method of divination at the present time 
is by the drawing of lots marked with answers out of an 
urn. These lots are believed to be controlled by the 
spirits. Another form of lot is the chiao which consists 
of two pieces of stone or of wood shaped like the two 
halves of a bean. These are thrown into the air in the 
presence of the ancestral tablets. Two convex sides up 
mean no answer. Two flat sides up mean a negative 
answer. One flat and one convex side up mean an affirma- 
tive answer. This method of divination was in existence 
at least as early as 300 B.C. 

Spirit-writing has been known in China at least since 
the beginning of our era. The instrument which corre- 
sponds to the planchette is called chi. It consists of a 
bough with two long branches and one short branch. 

10 Shu-king, II. ii. ch. ii. 18. 
™Ibid., VI. vii. Pt. iii, 7. 
13 Ibid., V. vi. 9. 

13 Ibid., V., xii. 2. 

14 See p. 16. i 



24 SPIRITISM ii 

The long branches are held as handles by two persons; 
and the short branch writes on paper, or on sand spread 
upon a table. It is thus an analogue to the divining rod 
of western lands. It is commonly made of peach or of 
willow wood, because these are distasteful to evil spirits, 
in order to prevent its control by the wrong sort of 
ghost. Like the pianchette it is a means of automatic 
writing on the part of the persons who hold it. The 
spirit is invoked to enter it. He is said to "descend into 
the chi" "to go up into it," "to adhere to it," "to have 
contact with it." When he comes, the chi falls upon the 
table with a bang, and is apparently uncontrollable by 
the persons who hold it. It begins to write furiously, and 
in reply to questions will state the name of the spirit 
that is using it, his birthplace, the time when he lived, and 
other particulars. Occasionally the wrong sort of a 
spirit gets on the line and "plays fast and loose with the 
chi." This causes great confusion as long as it lasts, 
which usually is not for a great length of time. Spirits 
may even write letters without the use of the chi, and 
drop them down from the sky for the guidance of men. 15 
2. Spirits Can Take Possession of Animals and Con- 
trol the Action of These Creatures. — Thus men who have 
been devoured by wild beasts cannot escape from the 
bodies of these animals until another victim has been 
eaten. A man-eating tiger is always possessed by a kuei 
which urges it to attack some person. "Real tigers," 
says one authority, "devour no men; it is men transformed 
into tigers who do so, for they are ashamed of their own 
race and hate it." Kuan, the minister of the ancient King 
Yao, in damming up the inundating waters "disarranged 
the hvz elements." For this he was imprisoned for life, 
and after his death his soul passed into an yellow bear. In 
534 B.C. this same bear appeared in a dream to the 
ruler of Tsin. In 693 B.C. a certain P'eng-sheng was put 

"See de Groot, vi. p. 1295; Dore, ii. 354; cf. 2 Chr. 21:12, where a writing 
comes to Jehoram from the dead Elijah. 



ii SPIRITISM IN CHINA 25 

to death for the murder of Hsiian, the ruler of Lu. He 
appeared in the form of a wild boar to Hsiang, the ruler 
of Ts'i, and soon after the latter was assassinated. The 
spirits of drowned men were likely to enter into the 
bodies of aquatic animals. Yuen, king of Sung (530- 
516 B.C.), dreamed that a man with dishevelled hair 
appeared to him, saying, "A fisherman named Yii Tsii has 
caught me." A diviner interpreted this to mean, "This 
is a tortoise possessed by a shen." Next day the king 
interrogated the fisherman, and he reported that he had 
caught a white tortoise, as oval-shaped as a basket, and 
five feet broad. 

Animals which inhabit graves are naturally regarded 
as possessed by spirits of the dead. Such are wolves, 
hyenas, jackals, foxes, rats, bats, owls and serpents. All 
of these are demonic animals that have the powers of 
speech and of helping or hurting men. Birds also are 
frequently possessed by spirits of the dead. A certain 
Wei was about to kill a cock that belonged to him, when 
to his amazement the bird cried out, "I am Wang, your 
old chum in the army." The prefect, hearing of this, 
summoned Wei and the bird before him. The cock 
repeated its statements before the magistrate, and con- 
cluded with the words: "Now, since I, a domestic fowl, 
have divulged matters of the World of Darkness without 
authorization, I must die." It stretched out its neck and 
expired. The prefect ordered it to be buried in a tomb 
that bore the inscription "Tomb of the Man-cock." 
Friends and lovers are specially likely to turn into birds 
after death. Wen-hsiu and Lo Tzu-chung were great 
friends. They died the same night, and were buried 
seven miles apart. "Wen-hsiu's soul changed into a cock, 
and that of Tzu-chung into a pheasant; and the melan- 
choly tones of their shrill voices resound there to and fro 
continually." The heir-apparent of Ts'i died, and his 
bride grieved so that she soon followed him to the grave. 
Her bridal matron drummed on the tomb with the lute 



26 SPIRITISM ii 

that the girl had been accustomed to play, and two 
pheasants came forth out of it. Mandarin ducks are 
famous in China for their conjugal affection. It is said 
that a duck will even follow a drake into the cooking 
pot. It is not surprising, therefore, that loving couples 
after death enter into the bodies of these birds. 16 

3. Spirits Can Enter into Dead Bodies. — They may 
re-animate their own bodies long after death. De Groot 
reports one hundred and twenty-seven cases in literature 
before the tenth century of our era. At other times the 
spirits may re-animate the corpses of other persons. 
This happens when their own bodies have decayed, or 
have been destroyed so as to be no longer usable. After 
spending a dozen years in the other world, a certain 
Chuh Chi-ching returned to earth in the body of his 
recently deceased neighbour, Chao Tzii-huo, and lived 
happily with his own family for a number of years. An 
unknown kuei animated the body of a dead girl, and she 
lived for a long time as the wife of a man. Such tales 
are almost as numerous as those of resurrection. 17 

4. Spirits Can Be Reborn in New Bodies. — Still an- 
other method of returning to life is to enter into the womb 
of a mother and become the soul of an unborn babe. 
When such persons are born and begin to grow up, they 
remember their former existence. A certain learned man 
named Pao Ching who lived under the Tsin dynasty re- 
membered that in his previous existence he had been 
drowned in a well at the age of nine. Search in the well 
confirmed the correctness of his statements. Yang Hu, 
when he was five years old, asked for a ring with which he 
used to play. When he was told that he never had one, he 
went to a mulberry tree in a neighbour's yard, and pulled 
out a ring that had been lost by a dead child of that fam- 
ily. Rebirths were also recognised by scars, or other 
marks on the body of a child, that corresponded to similar 

18 See de Groot, iv. pp. 156-252; v. 542-651; Dore, ii. 380 sq. 
« See de Groot, iv. 123. 



ii SPIRITISM IN CHINA 27 

marks on the body of the deceased. In taking a second 
body a spirit might change its sex. A girl named Ts'ai- 
niang was reborn as a son of her own mother. As soon 
as the boy began to talk he demanded the concealed play- 
things that had belonged to his sister. 18 

5. Spirits Can Obsess the Bodies of Living Men. — 
The belief has been universal in China since the earliest 
times that diseases are caused by spirits which enter into 
the bodies of living men. These malignant spirits are of 
different classes and bear many names, but among them 
spirits of the dead play an important part. Ghosts of 
the unburied, or of those improperly buried (see below 
under /), are wont to vent their spite by obsessing the 
living. Weapons buried with the dead may become dan- 
gerous to the living. The wife and the daughters of the 
prefect of Hsin-tu suffered from violent headaches and 
palpitations of the heart. Inquiry of the famous sooth- 
sayer Kuan Lu elicited the response: "On the west side 
of the hall two dead men lie, one with a spear, and the 
other with a bow and an arrow; their heads lie inside the 
wall and their feet outside ; the one with the spear pierces 
the heads of your family, and this is why their heads ache 
so that they cannot raise them; the other aims at their 
breasts, whereby their hearts feel so anxious and pained 
that they cannot eat or drink; in the daytime these beings 
soar about, but at night they come and make people ill, 
striking them with fright and anxiety." On hearing this, 
the prefect had the skeletons exhumed and buried else- 
where, and the women promptly recovered. Chinese 
beliefs on this subject are identical with those of the 
ancient Sumerians in Babylonia which are discussed on 
page 212. 19 

6. Spirits Can Possess the Souls of Living Men. — 
Not merely the bodies of men, but also their souls can be 
occupied by spirits of the dead, who then control their 

18 See de Groot, iv. 143. 

19 Ibid., v. 675. 



28 SPIRITISM ii 

thoughts and actions. Insanity is caused by spirits, and 
is therefore akin to inspiration. Ghosts of the murdered, 
or of those who have been injured in their lifetimes, enter 
into their oppressors, compelling them to divulge their 
crimes, or driving them to madness. Candidates for 
literary honours are often given by kindly spirits super- 
human intelligence in their examinations, while others 
are so bewildered by malicious ghosts that they make 
utter failures. Sometimes instead of his examination 
paper a candidate is constrained to write out a confession 
of a crime that he has committed. Dreams are believed 
to be caused by spirits, and spirits frequently appear to 
people in dreams. Somnambulism, trance, and hypnosis 
are also caused by their activity. 

A curious form of the belief in spirit-possession 
appeared in the Chou dynasty (noo B.C.) in the "per- 
sonators" of the dead at the funeral feasts. Descendants 
of the ancestors were chosen, and were arrayed in cere- 
monial garments. The ancestors were invoked to be 
present in them, they sat solemnly in state, ate of the 
food, drank of the liquors, received the prayers of the 
family through a "prayer-officer," revealed the will of 
the ancestors, and pronounced their blessing upon the 
"filial descendant" because of his generous sacrifice. One 
of the odes of this period says: "We invite the 'imper- 
sonator' of the dead to be seated that we may secure great 
happiness. . . . The full ceremonial is carefully ob- 
served, and every word and smile is as it ought to be. . . . 
When the service is finished, all the actors are exhausted, 
having carried out the ceremonial without mistake. The 
'prayer-officer' announces to the 'filial descendant' that 
his filial sacrifice has been fragrant. . . . The ceremo- 
nial being thus finished, the bells and drums strike up, and 
the 'filial descendant' returns to his own seat. The 
'prayer-officer' declares that the shen have drunk to 
satiety. The august 'personator' of the dead then arises, 



ii SPIRITISM IN CHINA 29 

and is escorted away to the sound of bells and drums. 
The shen go away noiselessly." 20 

This strange institution of the "personator" has not 
existed since the Chou dynasty, but "mediums" of other 
sorts have lasted down to the present time. People in an 
hypnotic or ecstatic condition are regarded as possessed 
by spirits. Such persons are called wu. They are akin 
to the shamans and medicine-men of other races. Wang 
Ch'ung, the sceptical philosopher who lived at the close 
of the first century of our era, says: "Among men the 
dead speak through living persons whom they throw into 
a trance; and the wu, thrumming their black chords, call 
down souls of the dead, which then speak through the 
mouths of the wu" Individuals thus possessed indicated 
the fact by convulsive motions of the face and limbs, 
shivering, groaning and sobbing, or by uncontrollable 
running or jumping. Sometimes they manifested such 
power that the strongest men could not hold them. In 
order to induce the prophetic ecstasy they made use of 
dancing and singing, like the Sons of the Prophets in 
1 Samuel 10:5, and the priests of the ba'al in 1 Kings 
18 '.26. This practice is mentioned as early as the Shang 
dynasty in the eighteenth century B.C. So infectious was 
this enthusiasm that bystanders were caught, by it and 
prophesied with the wu. Young boys were often associ- 
ated with them that they might participate in their inspira- 
tion. We are reminded of the way in which the youthful 
Saul prophesied with the Sons of the Prophets ( 1 Samuel 
10:10-12; 19:20-24). The wu might belong to either 
sex; but, as among other races, they were chiefly women. 
A male wu was known also as chi. 

When controlled by the spirits, the wu uttered oracles 
in their name. The Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty 
frequently consulted a female wu who was inspired by the 

20 Shi-king, II. vi. 5 ; Cf . the Roman custom, pp. 75, 80. 



30 SPIRITISM ii 

deceased princess Shen. Of her the chronicler records: 
"Whatever she said he ordered to be written down. Her 
orders were called written law, but merely told things 
which even ordinary people knew, and they contained 
nothing extraordinary; nevertheless, the Son of Heaven 
extended an exclusive preference to them. They were 
kept secret, and the world at that time knew nothing of 
them." Under Emperor Chao, son of Wu of the Han 
dynasty, his brother Hsu aspired to the throne, and con- 
sulted a female wu named Li Nii-hsu. "He ordered her 
to bring down a shen and make incantations. Nu-hsii 
burst into tears as she said, 'The Emperor Hsiao Wu 
descends into me' ; and while all the bystanders prostrated 
themselves, she exclaimed, 'It is my strict order that Hsu 
shall become the Son of Heaven.' " This ability of the 
wu to bring messages from revered ancestors, or from 
beloved relatives or friends, gave them great influence 
over the credulous. 

The wu possessed also clairvoyant powers which 
enabled them to discover lost articles, or to tell where 
things were hidden. In the reign of King Kuei-ming 
(264 A.D.) two wu identified the grave of a princess by 
describing the clothes in which she was buried. The grave 
was opened, and the garments were found as described. 
Ch'en Kuah of the eleventh century says of a female wu: 
"She proved able to reveal anything that my uncle wished 
to know from her about things in this human world, even 
though they were more than a thousand miles off." 

The wu were able also to read the minds of other peo- 
ple. Of the same female wu just mentioned Ch'en Kuah 
says: "She even knew the thoughts arising in others. 
Guests who were just then playing draughts held in their 
hands some black or white draughtsmen which they had 
previously counted, and asked her how many there were, 
and she gave the answer correctly every time; but then 
they took handfuls without counting them, and she could 
not mention their numbers. It was thus evident that she 



ii SPIRITISM IN CHINA 31 

could know what others knew, but not what others did 
not bear in their minds." Because of these powers 
emperors and princes were accustomed to make use of 
the wu in order to discover sorcerers, or rebels who were 
conspiring against their authority. The wu were able to 
tell people what they had dreamed, even when they them- 
selves had forgotten it. In 580 B.C. the ruler of Chin 
dreamed that he saw a tall demon with dishevelled hair 
reaching to the ground, which beat its breast and stamped 
on the ground, saying, "You have killed my grandsons 
unjustly, but I have had my request granted by the Celes- 
tial Emperor." A female wu repeated this dream to the 
king and told him that it meant his impending death. 21 

When possessed by the spirits, the wu could predict 
the future. Of one of these mediums Chuang-tzu says: 
u In Ching there was a wu animated by a shen, whose 
name was Chi-hsien. He knew everything about the 
birth and death of men, the continuation and cessation 
of their lives, their misfortunes and happiness, and 
whether they would die at a great age or prematurely." 
In the year 888 a wu said to Lo Hung-hsin: u An old 
grey-haired man sends me to you with the expression of 
his gratitude; you are destined to become the owner of 
this earth." Hung-hsin subsequently became emperor. 
About 1000 A.D. a wu predicted to Chau Tsu, the ances- 
tor of the House of Kin, the birth of four children, and 
described accurately their characteristics. 

Under the influence of the spirits the wu possessed not 
only supernatural knowledge but also the power of work- 
ing miracles. The life of Hsia T'ung during the Tsin 
dynasty gives the following account of two beautiful 
female wu in his day: "They chanted and danced excel- 
lently, and they could render themselves invisible. The 
first evening was opened by them with bells and drums, 
the noise of which they alternated with music of stringed 

81 Compare the cases of Joseph, Gen. 40-41; and of Daniel, Dan. 2. 



32 SPIRITISM ii 

instruments and bamboo pipes. Then Tan and Chu drew 
knives or swords, cut their tongues therewith, swallowed 
the swords, and spat fire, a cloud hiding them from 
view, from which streams of light flashed like lightning. 
. . . Dancing with light steps, and whirling round and 
round, they uttered a language of spirits and laughed like 
spectres, causing basins to spin and fly against each other, 
and with gestures as though flying invited one another to 
drink. Hsia T'ung stood horror-stricken; off he ran, not 
through the gate, but right through the fence, and went 
home." When the witch Nu-hsu, who has been men- 
tioned before, made her incantations, "the red leaves on 
some ten branches of a jujube tree in the palace-park 
turned as white as silk, and in the pond the water became 
red and the fish died, and rats hopped about in full day- 
light in erect attitude in the queen's courtyard." 

Other mediums under the influence of the spirits pro- 
duced wonderful literary compositions. About 1035 A.D. 
a spirit descended into a girl in the family of Wang Lun, 
Doctor in the Court of Sacrificial Worship. "That girl 
thereupon was able to write literary compositions of 
exquisite beauty, which even now are circulating in the 
world under the title of Collected Works of the Female 
Immortal. She wrote in several styles, and manifested 
the greatest artistic skill in the use of the pencil; but 
never did she write the seal characters or square charac- 
ters that are used in this world." 22 

7. Spirits Can Appear to Men. — Such apparitions 
are not limited to professional seers, but may happen to 
anyone. Ghosts that thus reveal themselves retain the 
form of their bodies at the time of death. Ghosts of chil- 
dren return as children; ghosts of the aged, as aged. 
Ghosts of those who have been beheaded show themselves 
headless; and after an execution fire-crackers are set off to 
drive the ghost away from the place, and the mandarin 

"See de Groot, vi. pp. 1187-1341; Dore, i. 139-142. 



ii SPIRITISM IN CHINA 33 

who superintends the execution passes through a smoke at 
the door of his house to prevent the headless spectre from 
entering with him. As in other lands, ghosts are most 
likely to appear at the time of their death, or soon after. 
Many families have had experience of the return of 
deceased relatives to their homes. In the Classics men- 
tion is made of the custom of fasting and meditating for 
three days before celebrating the worship of an ancestor. 
The "filial descendant" was required to recall the looks 
of the person whom he wished to honour, how he had 
stood and sat, how he had smiled and spoken, what had 
been his favourite thoughts and occupations. On the 
third day, through self-hypnotisation, the ancestor 
appeared to the worshipper and spoke to him. Whether 
a ghost could appear in person or had to depend upon a 
medium depended upon the degree of energy that it pos- 
sessed. In the year 825 a female wu said to Li Hsiang, 
prefect of Meng Chou: "I am a spectre-seer who can 
summon spirits by calling them hither. There are two 
kinds of spirits, those which enjoy happiness and blessing, 
and others which are poor and mean ; the former have a 
vital spirit which is so vigorous and healthy that it enables 
them to speak with men from time to time, while the 
latter have a breath which is so weak and a sken which 
is so exhausted that they are obliged to employ me as 
their mouthpiece." 

Ghosts appeared more frequently to professional wu 
than to ordinary men; in fact, they could often be seen 
by the wu when they were invisible to others. An inter- 
esting account has come down of a seance of Li Hsiang 
with the wu just mentioned. She said to the prefect, 
"Under a tree in front of this hall I see a man in a red 
robe. He says he is Lu Tsung-shi, late Second Superin- 
tendent of the Boards. Go to welcome him." Li Hsiang 
went accordingly, and politely invited the spirit to enter. 
"The Superintendent is coming in," said the medium. A 
voice was then heard in the air saying, "Lu Tsung-shi 



34 SPIRITISM ii 

was strangled with a bow-string in this very hall. He 
hates such strings, therefore please remove the bow that 
hangs above your divan." Li Hsiang did so and sat 
down. The medium then cried, "You have shown a 
great discourtesy to the Superintendent who is of higher 
rank than you in sitting down first, and he is going away 
in anger. Run after him and stop him." Li Hsiang 
hastened to make apologies, and heard a voice up in the 
air saying, "So gross a mistake, you presumed to sit down 
in my presence !" After repeated entreaties the wu 
announced that the Superintendent had at last consented 
to return. "What has the gentleman to ask?" said a 
voice in the air. "He most humbly begs to be favoured 
with a word telling him whether glory or distress shall 
be in store for him," said the wu. The voice in the air 
answered, "He shall be welcomed at the capital by many 
people ; in a month after his arrival in the city he shall be 
prefect of Wu-chou." The voice in the air was evidently 
the product of ventriloquism, and this is a common 
accomplishment of Chinese mediums. 

Mediums had the power of "materialisation" of 
spirits, that is, of making them visible to other people. 
The so-called History of the South records that under 
the Emperor Hsiao Wu (A.D. 454-465) "there was a 
wu who could see spirits, and who assured the Emperor 
that it would be possible to make his deceased secondary 
consort appear. The Emperor was very glad of it, and 
bade him evoke her. In a few minutes she was actually 
seen on a curtain in the shape which she had had when 
alive. The Emperor desired to speak with her, but she 
remained silent; and just as he would fain have grasped 
her hand, she vanished." The same girl-medium men- 
tioned above, who wrote such beautiful literary compo- 
sitions, also possessed powers of "materialising" spirits. 
"In that house the spirit occasionally showed its shape, 
and then it was perceived that above the loins it was like 
an attractive woman; but below the loins it was always 



ii SPIRITISM IN CHINA 35 

veiled as if by a cloud. She could play beautifully on the 
lute ; and when her voice chimed in, it was so sweet and 
pleasant that all who listened forgot their cares." 23 

/. The Abode of Disembodied Spirits. — Like all 
other ancient peoples, the Chinese believed that spirits of 
the dead maintained a close connection with the bodies 
that they had formerly occupied. Just as they returned to 
these from sleep or from swoons so they returned to them 
from death. Consequently, it was necessary that the 
body should be preserved intact in order to serve as a 
habitation for the soul. Injuries to the body inflicted 
corresponding injuries on the soul. Criminals who had 
been beheaded wandered about as headless ghosts; and 
when the heads had disappeared, wooden substitutes were 
buried with the corpses in the hope that this would lay 
the spectres. The dynasty of Chou excluded from the 
tombs of the kings all members of the family who had 
died a violent death. Teeth that had come out during 
life and nail parings were carefully preserved in order 
that they might be buried with the dead. Mutilation of 
the corpse was the worst penalty that could be inflicted 
upon criminals. An ancient law reads : "Whoever mur- 
ders three members of one family, shall be slowly cut up 
with knives till death ensues. His corpse shall be chopped 
to pieces, and his head exhibited on a stake as a warning 
to the public." Bodies of offenders were often exhumed 
in order that punishment might be inflicted on them. 
Shih Lih, a pretender to the throne, burned the body of 
the general who had fought against him and who had 
died in 311 A.D. In a chronicle of the Hsiao-chuang 
period (525-528 A.D.) it is narrated: "Liu Thing had 
already expired; but the Empress, remembering his 
crimes, had his grave opened and his body destroyed, 
that his ghost might be deprived of everything in which 
to take refuge." So dreadful a disaster to the dead is 

88 See de Groot, vi. pp. 1212-1341; Dore, i. 132-138. 



36 SPIRITISM ii 

mutilation of their corpses that it is prohibited under 
heavy penalties by the Legal Code : "Whoever mangles 
or destroys the corpse of a member of another family, or 
casts it into the water, shall be punished with one hundred 
blows with the long stick, and shall be transported for life 
to a country three thousand miles distant." 

The grave is the dwelling-place of the dead, and with- 
out a grave they have no home. The unburied dead are 
ghosts who roam the earth and haunt the living. Such 
are those who have been drowned, lost in the mountains 
or deserts, devoured by wild beasts, or who have no 
relatives to provide for their interment so that their 
bodies are cast out like carrion, or the spirits of infants 
that have been exposed by their parents. It is considered 
a pious deed to care for bodies of the unburied, and 
benevolent societies exist which provide coffins and small 
sums for funeral expenses for the worthy poor. It is 
also one of the functions of the Government to see that 
no dead remain unburied. 

Improper burial is almost as bad as no burial, for the 
dead cannot rest. Officers who offended the Emperor 
were punished in ancient times by being condemned to a 
poor and mean burial. When tombs became ruinous, the 
shades became restless and haunted the living until 
repairs were made. A certain governor named Wen 
Ying had a dream in which a man appeared to him who 
said: "Ere now my parents buried me hereabouts, but 
when the tide rises it flows over my grave; the coffin 
being submerged, it becomes half full of water, so that I 
possess nothing wherein to keep myself warm." There- 
upon the spectre lifted up its clothes to show Wen Ying 
that they were wet through. "Where is your coffin?" 
asked Ying. "Ten pu to the north," said the ghost, 
"under a withered willow tree on the bank of the river." 
The next day Ying looked for the place, found the con- 
ditions to be as the ghost had described them and 
removed the coffin to a dry spot. 



ii SPIRITISM IN CHINA 37 

This association of the spirit with the corpse is the 
reason why members of the same family are buried 
together. It is felt that occupancy of the same tomb 
secures reunion in the other world. The earliest records 
bear testimony to the conveying of bodies from a distance 
to be interred in the family grave, and down to the pres- 
ent time the bones of Chinese who have died in America, 
or in other remote lands, are sent home for burial. In 
cases where, for one reason or another, bodies could not 
be brought back, provision was made in ancient times for 
the burial of their souls with their ancestors. Graves 
were prepared, the spirits were invoked to return, and 
soul-tablets bearing the name of the deceased, and gar- 
ments that had belonged to them were interred with the 
usual ceremonies. The placing of gifts in the grave and 
the offering of sacrifices at the grave, on which more 
will be said later, also bear witness to the belief that 
spirits of the dead inhabit the grave. 24 

In sharp contrast to this is the idea which is found 
already in the Canonical Books and Classics that spirits 
of the dead are "in the sky" or "on high." Thus one of 
the ancient odes of the Shi-king says: 

"Kings die in Chou, and others rise, 
And in their footsteps tread. 
Three there had been, and all were wise, 
And still they ruled, though dead. 
Tai, Chi, and Wen were all in heaven, 
When Wu to follow them was given." 25 

When Wu, the first king of the Chou dynasty, was sick, 
his brother invoked the spirits of the three nearest ances- 
tors as follows: "Your principal descendant is suffering 
from a grievous illness. If you three kings in the sky 
have charge of him, take me as a substitute for his per- 
son." 26 Of King Wen of the Chou dynasty it is said in 

2 *See de Groot, i. 342-355; ii. 378-381; iii. 829-934. 

20 Ski-king, III. i. Ode 9 ; translated by Legge, Religions of China, p. 77. 

28 Shu-king, V. vi. 5. 



38 SPIRITISM ii 

the odes : "After death he went to rest on high, enshrined 
in light." "The spirit of Wen could rest in peace in the 
sky." 27 This conception of the abode of the soul arises 
apparently from the idea that it is breath, wind, or light, 
and hence is allied to the celestial powers. It may also 
be due to the fact that the same word shen is applied to 
spirits of the dead and to heavenly spirits so that confu- 
sion between the two is possible. The same confusion of 
thought is found in many other early religions. 28 

At a very early date the Chinese philosophers tried to 
explain this inconsistency by the theory of two souls in 
man. The universe was regarded as the result of a union 
of two opposite principles Yang and Yin. Yang showed 
itself in heaven, light, day, south, summer, male, etc.; 
and Yin in earth, darkness, night, north, winter, female, 
etc. Human nature was composed of the same two ele- 
ments. Thus the Li-ki (VII. iii. i) says: "Thus it is 
that man consists of the beneficial substances that com- 
pose the Heavens and the Earth, of the co-operation of 
the Yin and the Yang, and of the union of a kuei with a 
shen." In XXI. ii. i of the same work we read: u Tsai 
Ngo spoke: 'I have heard the terms kuei and shen, but I 
do not know what they mean' ; on which Confucius said 
to him : 'The ch'i is the full manifestation of the shen } 
and the p'o is the full manifestation of the kuei; the 
union of the kuei with the shen is the highest among all 
tenets. Living beings are all sure to die, and as they 
certainly return {kuei) to the Earth after their death, the 
soul (which accompanies them thither) is called kuei. 
But while the bones and flesh moulder in the ground and 
mysteriously become earth of the fields, the ch ( i issues 
forth and manifests itself on high as a shining ming 
(light).'" These statements are mere philosophical 
speculations that have nothing to do with the actual popu- 
lar beliefs. As a matter of fact, in ordinary linguistic 

27 Ski-king, III. i. Ode 1. 

28 See pp. 107, 128, 172. 



ii SPIRITISM IN CHINA 39 

usage the shen and the mlng are connected with the grave 
quite as often as the kuei. The gravestone, or the ances- 
tral tablet, is occupied by the shen; the pagoda which 
shelters the tombstone is called "tower of the ming" ; 
objects buried in tombs are called "implements for the 
ming" and grave-clothes are called "coats and petticoats 
for the ming." All this shows that originally no distinc- 
tion of two spirits in man was made, and that this refine- 
ment has left no impression upon popular thought or 
language. The double abode of the dead remains, there- 
fore, an unexplained mystery. 29 

g. Deification of the Dead. — In view of the mysteri- 
ous powers that spirits of the dead possess it is not 
surprising that they are regarded by the Chinese as 
belonging to the class of gods rather than of men. They 
are a species of the genus shen, which embraces a multi- 
tude of spirits of all kinds. At the head of the hierarchy 
stands T'ien, "the Sky," commonly translated "Heaven." 
A synonymous term is Shang-ti, "High Ruler." This is 
the nearest that the Chinese religion comes to the idea 
of God. Next in importance to the Sky-spirit are the 
other celestial spirits who preside over astronomical and 
atmospheric phenomena. They are called by the generic 
name shen, or "spirits." Beneath them stand spirits of 
the earth called ch l i. The compound shen-ch'i expresses 
the totality of spirits in heaven and earth, like the 
Sumerian AN-KI. The great mountains and rivers also 
have their tutelary spirits, which are known as the kuei- 
shen of these places. Spirits of the soil are called she, 
and spirits of the crops chi. The compound she-chi 
designates the collective gods of agriculture. There is 
no difference of kind between these spirits and spirits of 
the dead. They differ only in rank and in functions. 

h. Worship of the Dead. — At the very beginning of 
authentic history the right to worship the spirits of 

88 See de Groot, iv. pp. 1-9. 



40 SPIRITISM ii 

Heaven and of Earth was taken from the common people 
and made a function of the Government. The ordinary 
citizen was allowed to worship only his own ancestors 
and the numen of the threshold or of the oven. Repre- 
sentatives of the clan were allowed to worship the pre- 
siding genius of its fields; and representatives of the 
families in a village, to worship the local guardian of the 
soil. The magistrate worshipped the spirits of his dis- 
trict; the prefect, those of his department; the governor, 
those of his province. The great feudal princes sacri- 
ficed to the presiding spirits of their states, to the rivers 
and mountains within their territories, and to the gods of 
fertility within the same boundaries. The Emperor 
alone had the right to sacrifice to Heaven and Earth, the 
great rivers and mountains of the empire, and to the 
spirits of agriculture of the entire realm. For any other 
man to perform these functions was an act of rebellion. 
Confucius himself said: "For a man to sacrifice to a kuet 
not his own ancestor is presumptuous flattery." 30 

Being debarred from the worship of nature-spirits, 
people in general knew no other religion than ancestor- 
worship. Thus it came about that this particular cult 
attained a development in China that is without a parallel 
in other parts of the world. Other races have practised 
ancestor-worship as a subsidiary rite alongside of the 
worship of gods and nature-spirits; but the Chinese have 
exalted it to the first place, and have made all other forms 
of religion secondary. As early as the classical books 
ancestor-worship had become the chief religion of the 
nation; and in spite of the spread of Taoism and 
Buddhism, it holds its own down to the present time. 
The ideograph for "filial piety," hsiao, is one of the 
oldest signs in the language. It is composed out of the 
combined signs for "old man" and "son." In regard 
to this piety Confucius says: "The services of love and 

80 Sayings of Confucius, II. xxiv. 



ii SPIRITISM IN CHINA 41 

reverence to parents when alive, and those of grief and 
sorrow for them when dead: — these completely discharge 
the fundamental duty of living men." 31 "The service 
which a filial son does to his parents is as follows : — In his 
general conduct to them he manifests the utmost rever- 
ence; in his nourishing of them his endeavour is to give 
them the utmost pleasure ; when they are ill, he feels the 
greatest anxiety; in mourning for them when dead, he 
exhibits every demonstration of grief; in sacrificing to 
them, he displays the greatest solemnity. When a son 
is complete in these five things, (he may be pronounced) 
able to serve his parents." 32 

Ordinarily only the three immediate ancestors of the 
head of the family are worshipped, the great-grand- 
father, grandfather, and father. Remoter forefathers 
receive only a collective homage once a year. 

Higher officers of the government and emperors, who 
have the privilege of worshipping other spirits besides 
those of the dead, nevertheless agree with the common 
people in regarding ancestor-worship as the chief duty in 
religion. The Shu-king, II. i. iii. 6, says of Shun (2254 
B.C.) : "Thereafter, he sacrificed specially, but with 
the ordinary forms, to Heaven; sacrificed purely to the 
six Honoured Ones (i.e., ancestors) ; offered their ap- 
propriate sacrifices to the hills and rivers; and extended 
his worship to the host of spirits," Here the ancestors 
of the reigning dynasty rank next after Heaven, and 
before the sun, moon and all other spirits. The Chou 
dynasty added Earth after Heaven; and, with this modi- 
fication, this order of imperial sacrifices lasted down to 
the fall of the late Manchu dynasty. The sacrifices to 
Heaven and Earth were celebrated only at the summer 
and winter solstices and on a few other special occa- 
sions, while ancestor-worship went on at all times. This 
explains why it is mentioned in the imperial chronicles 

81 Hsiao-king, chap, xviii. 
32 Ibid., chap. x. 



42 SPIRITISM ii 

and odes far more frequently than any other royal cult. 
Under the Chou dynasty the emperor had seven an- 
cestral shrines: one for the "great ancestor," or founder 
of the family; another for Wen, Duke of Chou, the 
father of Wu; another for Wu, the founder of the dy- 
nasty; and the rest for the four immediate ancestors of 
the emperor. When an emperor died, the spirit-tablet 
of his great-great-grandfather was removed to the hall 
of the remote ancestors, the tablets of his three imme- 
diate ancestors were moved up one space, and his own 
tablet was set up in the last shrine. The tablets of 
the consorts of the emperors were placed beside those 
of their husbands. The moral character of a deceased 
ruler made no difference in the homage that was paid 
him. The prosperity of the empire depended upon the 
proper celebration of the ancestral rites. Confucius 
says: "By their ceremonies in the ancestral temple 
they worshipped the forefathers. He who should un- 
derstand the great sacrificial ceremonies, and the mean- 
ing of the ceremonies in the ancestral temple, would find 
it as easy to govern the empire as to look upon the 
palm of his hand." 

The feudal dukes had five ancestral shrines: that 
of the "great ancestor" and those of the four imme- 
diate forefathers. High officials had three shrines : that 
of the "great ancestor," grandfather, and father. When 
a man was ennobled, his ancestors also were ennobled by 
imperial decree so that they might become suitable ob- 
jects of worship for the new dignitary; and if he were de- 
graded, his ancestors were degraded also. Lower offi- 
cials were allowed only one shrine, that of the imme- 
diate forefather. 

Besides the ancestors of the reigning house the state 
religion paid homage to the discoverers of arts or sci- 
ences, to sages, statesmen, deliverers from calamities, 
and other public benefactors of the past. Thus the 
Li-ki in the last section of the book on sacrifice says: 





ii SPIRITISM IN CHINA 43 

u The rule observed by the sage kings in instituting sac- 
rifices was this: — that those who had legislated for the 
people should be sacrificed to, also those who had died 
in the diligent discharge of their duties, those whose 
toils had established states, and those who had warded 
off, or given succour in great calamities." Such persons 
were known as "Assistants of Heaven." Among these 
were Shen-nung, a prehistoric emperor who taught his 
people to till the ground and to cultivate grain; Hou-tsi, 
the original ancestor of the dynasty of Chou, born of a 
virgin who became pregnant by "treading in a footprint 
of the Lord (Ti)," the conqueror of the nine provinces. 

Confucius himself belonged to this class. It is said 
that the Prince of Lu, Confucius' native state, built a 
shrine in his honour after his death where sacrifices 
were offered four times in the year. The first emperor 
of the Han dynasty in 194 B.C. visited the grave of 
Confucius in Shan-tung and sacrificed a pig, a sheep, 
and a bullock. Fifty years later a temple was built to 
Confucius in his native city of Ch'ufu, and in A.D. 59 
Emperor Ming-ti ordered that offerings be made to 
Confucius in all state schools. In A.D. 72 the same 
Emperor ordered the tablets of the seventy-two disciples 
to be set up and offerings to be made to them. In 
286 it was decreed that sacrifices should be offered to 
him four times in the year on the imperial altar and on 
the altar of his own temple. In 55 it was ordered that 
a temple should be built to him in the capital of every 
district. At the present time temples of Confucius are 
found in all the larger cities, and he has become the object 
of an extensive national cult. 

i. Rites Preparatory to Burial. — Immediately be- 
fore death a person is removed from his bed and placed 
on a sort of bier consisting of three boards, where he 
is washed and his head shaved in order that he may 
make a good appearance on entering the world of spirits. 
As soon as death occurs the whole family break out 



44 SPIRITISM ii 

in loud howlings and laments, begging the dead to re- 
turn and expostulating with him for leaving them. Then 
follows the curious custom of the "recall of the soul" 
referred to on p. 1 8. The relatives now unbraid their 
cues, and let their hair fly loose (cf. Leviticus, 21 :io), 
and put on garments of coarse brown sackcloth which 
they wear whenever any funeral rites are being cele- 
brated. The eyes of the corpse are then closed, and the 
body is washed with water brought from a well into 
which coins have been thrown as an offering to the 
indwelling numen. Certain jewels that give life are 
placed in the mouth. A light is kept burning near the 
body at night, and dishes of food and cups of drink 
are placed near it, so that if the soul returns, it may at 
once find nourishment. 

The next day the deceased is dressed in an undergar- 
ment of cotton or linen, lined with an expensive sort 
of silk velvet designed to give comfort in the grave, and 
in new outer garments such as were worn on official occa- 
sions during life. A lunch is set out on a table, and a 
temporary soul-tablet is brought to be occupied by the 
spirit after the body is placed in the coffin. At the bot- 
tom of the coffin a quantity of rice paper is strewn, over 
this a loose board with seven holes, then a mattress, 
then a mat, and a small pillow for the head. The body 
is laid in the coffin, and with it are put a few personal 
articles such as a pipe, fan, or pen, or in the case of a 
child, a toy. The remaining space in the coffin is stuffed 
with "spirit" paper money for use in the other world, 
the cover is put on and is hermetically sealed. 33 

;. Graves, Tombs, and Mausolea. — In the very 
earliest times, apparently, the Chinese lived in caverns 
excavated in the clay cliffs along the banks of their 
rivers. When a member of the famly died, his body 
was left in the cave that he had inhabited during life, 
and it was abandoned by the rest of the household. In 

88 See de Groot, i. pp. 1-240; Dore, i. 41-46. 



ii SPIRITISM IN CHINA 45 

a slightly more advanced stage of civilisation huts of 
branches were constructed and plastered with clay, and 
these also were given up if a death occurred. Out of 
these two primitive forms of houses all later types of 
Chinese tombs have developed. They are either sub- 
terranean excavations (mu) , or tumuli (fen) that simu- 
late the shape of the ancient huts. When expensive 
and comfortable houses began to be built, they were 
no longer surrendered to the dead, but these were pro- 
vided with abodes of the prehistoric type. In the south 
of China graves predominate at the present time. In 
the central and northern provinces hemispherical mounds 
are more common. These frequently have a stone slab 
carved to represent a closed door inserted in the front. 
This is an architectural survival of the primitive hut 
door. Graves are commonly constructed by digging 
and packing in earth mixed with lime which forms a 
solid vault. Tumuli are built up over the coffin which 
is placed at or near the surface of the ground. 

The more elaborate tombs of the wealthy tend to 
imitate houses. The tumulus corresponds to the central 
back room of the house. In front of this is a wall 
bearing the gravestone, which corresponds to the an- 
cestral tablets in the home. In front of this is the 
"grave hall" which corresponds to the main hall of the 
house. This contains an altar for offerings to the shades 
which corresponds to the table in the house on which 
offerings are placed before the ancestral tablets. In 
front of the hall is the "grave court" which corresponds 
to the court in front of the house. These fundamental 
architectural elements are capable of indefinite elabora- 
tion in proportion to the wealth or the rank of the 
deceased. The most splendid sepulchral monuments of 
Chinese antiquity that have come down to us are the 
tombs of the emperors of the Ming dynasty (1368- 
1643 A.D.). Here the tumulus has become a costly 
mausoleum, the "soul-tower." The "spirit hall" has 



46 SPIRITISM ii 

been developed into a temple, and the court into a mag- 
nificent avenue of approach flanked with colossal stone 
images of animals. 

k. Rites of Burial. — The poor usually bury their 
dead on the day after decease. More prosperous people 
wait until the third day. The wealthy wait sometimes 
weeks or months in order to determine an auspicious 
day or an auspicious place for the burial. The art of 
determining such matters is known as Feng-shui. It is 
in the hands of experts who demand high fees for their 
services. It is so difficult to secure proper places for 
burial that coffins are often stored for years in receiving 
vaults where they pay rent until a grave can be found. 
The coffin is carried to the grave on a catafalque borne 
on the shoulders of fellow-villagers or clansmen. A cop^ 
per coin is placed in each corner of the grave, and ^ve 
kinds of cereals and some iron nails are strewn over the 
bottom. The professor of Feng-shui performs certain 
rites calculated to render the spiritual climate salubrious, 
and the coffin is lowered into the grave, amid firing of 
guns, beating of drums, gongs and cymbals, and howls 
of lamentation. The permanent soul-tablet is laid upon 
the coffin, and the sons exclaim, "Father (or Mother), 
arise I" The spirit thereupon enters into the tablet as its 
perpetual abiding place. The tablet is removed from 
the grave, and the temporary tablet, or spirit-banner is 
put in its place, also slate tablets engraved with a biogra- 
phy of the deceased, and the censer and candlesticks that 
were used during the funeral services. All these rites 
which are practised in modern China can be traced back 
to a high antiquity. 34 

In ancient times all sorts of gifts were placed with the 
dead in the graves. The Li-ki, XIX. ii. 36, says that 
parched grain, fish, and dried meat were deposited with 
the dead in the period of the Chou dynasty. The /-/*, 
speaking of the same period, enumerates the following 

»* Dore, i. 53-57. 



ii SPIRITISM IN CHINA 47 

articles that were buried with ordinary officials: "Two 
baskets of meat, three hampers of millet, panicled millet 
and wheat, three earthen pots with pickled meat, pre- 
served meat, and sliced food, two earthen jars with must 
and spirits." In the case of princely or imperial burials 
enormous quantities of food were placed in the graves. 
Other articles deposited in the grave during the Chou 
dynasty were pieces of silk, costly garments, armour, 
weapons, jewelry, tools, and vessels of various sorts. 
Huge treasures were interred in the tombs of emperors 
and feudal princes, and this often led to their rifling in 
later ages. To prevent this stringent laws were passed 
and garrisons of troops were stationed to guard the tombs 
against marauders. Favourite animals were also killed 
and buried with their owners so that they might be used 
in the other world. 

Human sacrifice was not infrequent in ancient times. 
The earliest recorded case is in 619 B.C. when one hun- 
dred and seventy persons were buried with the prince of 
Ts'in. About 600 B.C. a certain Wei Wu-tzu gave orders 
before his death that a favourite concubine should be 
buried alive with him. In 587 B.C. several living persons 
were interred with Wen, the ruler of Sung. A certain man 
gave two of his daughters to be buried with the emperor 
as a sign of gratitude for favours conferred upon his 
father. In 210 B.C. all childless wives of the emperor 
were buried with him. Cases of this sort are reported 
as late as the Ming dynasty (1300 A.D.), and it is said 
to have happened at the funeral of a Manchu emperor 
in 1 66 1. This custom is unquestionably a survival of a 
primitive rite that was practised by all ancient peoples, 
and that still lingers among savages. Closely akin is the 
custom of suicide of wives or betrothed maidens, which 
existed until within a few years. 

The waste of property and of life which these sacrifices 
involved early called forth protests and efforts to substi- 
tute less valuable articles. Even under the Chou dynasty 



48 SPIRITISM ii 

the bows and arrows placed with the dead were unfit 
for real use. About 650 B.C. Huan, king of Ts'i, com- 
plained that all woven stuffs were made up into grave- 
clothes and shrouds, and all timber into coffins and grave- 
vaults. He forbade expensive funerals under penalty 
that the dead should be mangled and the mourners 
beaten. According to the Li-ki, II. i. iii. 22, the phi- 
losopher K'ang Tzu-kao said: "I have never been 
of any use to others during my life, and may I do them 
no harm by my death. When I die select a plot of 
ground that does not produce any food and bury me 
there." 

Confucius discouraged the burial of costly articles 
with the dead. "When his disciples wished to give Yen 
Yuen a costly burial at his death, the Master advised 
them not to do any such thing, nevertheless they buried 
him in rich style. 35 In the Li-ki, II. i. iii. 3, we read: 
"If we were to treat the dead as if they were quite alive, 
we should betray great ignorance. For this reason the 
bamboo instruments are not quite fit to use, those of 
earthenware cannot well be washed, nor can those of 
wood be carved. The citherns and lutes are strung, but 
not tuned; the mouth-organs and Pandean pipes are in 
good order, but not attuned to the same key; there are 
also bells and sonorous stones, but no stands to suspend 
them from. These things are called instruments for the 
manes, because they are for the use of human souls. " 
According to the Li-ki, II. ii. i. 44, "Confucius also 
said: 'Those who make such implements for the manes of 
the dead show that they are acquainted with the right 
method of conducting funeral rites ; for those implements, 
although ready at hand, are unfit for actual use. The 
carts of clay and straw images of men and horses, which 
have been in vogue since ancient times, are founded on 
the same principle as the implements for the manes/ " 

88 Lun-yii, xi. 10. 



ii SPIRITISM IN CHINA 49 

This shows that long before the time of Confucius the 
custom had appeared of placing imitations instead of real 
persons and things with the dead. Little by little this 
custom displaced that of burying wives, slaves, and ani- 
mals with their master. Images of stone, wood, clay, or 
even of straw were substituted in their stead. In course 
of time paper imitations of all the articles formerly buried 
with the dead were prepared, and instead of being placed 
in the grave they were burned at the home during the 
funeral ceremonies, and the ashes were carried to the 
grave and deposited there. The custom of placing food 
and other offerings in the tomb has entirely disappeared 
from modern China. Under the Chou dynasty, when 
the burial was completed, an "impersonator" was ap- 
pointed who, as the representative of the dead partook 
of food that was set before him. With this "sacrifice 
of repose," we are told, "the service of him as living 
ceases, and that for him in his ghostly state begins." 36 

/. Ancestral Shrines and Temples. — The grave is not 
the only sanctuary of the dead. Besides this there is the 
place in which the soul-tablets of the ancestors are depos- 
ited. In poorer families this consists of a shelf in the 
main hall of the house directly opposite the front door 
on which the tablets are placed immediately after the 
funeral. Wealthier families have special shrines or tem- 
ples designed for the housing of these tablets. These 
were the first temples in China. The nature-spirits had 
only open-air sanctuaries, but spirits of the dead had 
houses. When a new capital was to be built, the first 
care was to erect a temple for the ancestors of the reign- 
ing house. The new building was consecrated with the 
blood of victims slain in a dedication sacrifice. In 2258 
B.C. 37 Yao resigned the throne to Shun in the temple of 
the Accomplished Ancestor. At the beginning of his 
reign Shun sacrificed a bullock in the temple of the Culti- 

38 See de Groot, ii. pp. 361-473; 659-827; Dore, i. 109-113. 
87 Shu-king, II. i. 4. 



50 SPIRITISM ii 

vated Ancestor. 38 Shun invested Yii as his successor in 
the temple of the Spiritual Ancestor. 39 Under Shun a 
special officer had charge of the rites in the ancestral 
temple. 40 In regard to the arrangement of the shrines 
in the ancestral temple see p. 42. When a dynasty 
came to an end its ancestral temple was closed and sacri- 
fices were suspended. The reigning monarch proved his 
right to the throne by erecting a new temple in which 
his forefathers who had given him the sovereignty en- 
joyed supreme homage. Frequent mention is made of 
virtuous descendants who repaired the temples of their 
ancestors. 

m. Rites of Mourning for the Dead. — In the earliest 
period known to history the Chinese were accustomed to 
mourn for the dead by leaving their houses and dwelling 
in sheds, wearing scanty and coarse garments, and 
fasting. All three of these customs are alluded to in 
the Li-ki, XXXII. 3 : "The shabby coat with its 
edges roughly cut off, and the mourning staff; dwelling 
in a shed reared against the wall; eating rice gruel there, 
and sleeping on straw or matting with a clod of earth 
for a pillow — these things are the outward signs of the 
deepest grief." De Groot thinks that these rites have 
grown out of the surrender of property to the dead men- 
tioned above. When the house was abandoned to the 
corpse, temporary shelters had to be erected for the rela- 
tives. When garments and food were buried in the 
grave, nothing but rags and remnants were left for the 
survivors. Later, when cheap substitutes were placed in 
the grave, the ancient forms of poverty were retained 
through religious conservatism. For other explanations 
of these ceremonies, which are found among all primi- 
tive peoples, see p. 9L The requirements of mourning 
were graded according to the nearness of relationship 

88 Shu-king, II. i. 8. 
m Ibid., II. ii. 19. 
*»lbid., II. i. 23. 



ii SPIRITISM IN CHINA 51 

to the deceased. In some cases it lasted as long as 
twenty-seven months, the rigours being slowly abated as 
time went on. 

n. Sacrifices to the Dead. — In addition to the offer- 
ings that were placed in the grave at the time of burial, 
offerings were also placed upon the grave at stated times 
subsequently. In proportion as the burial sacrifices de- 
clined the other sorts of sacrifice gained in importance. 
According to the Li-ki, chap. V. ii. 19, Confucius, when 
asked what the son of a concubine ought to do if the son 
of the principal wife were away, said: "He shall erect 
an altar in front of the grave, and sacrifice there at each 
of the four seasons," Mencius speaks of people who 
lived by picking up the remnants of sacrifices to the dead. 

Other sacrifices were offered at the ancestral shrines 
or temples where the soul-tablets were preserved. These 
are mentioned with great frequency in the Canonical 
Books. The Emperor Shun (2255-2205 B.C.), when- 
ever he returned from his tours through the provinces, 
sacrificed a bullock at the temple of the Cultivated An- 
cestor. 41 I-Yin, chief minister of T'ang, founder of the 
Shang dynasty, "in the twelfth month of the first year 
sacrificed to the former king, and presented the heir to 
the throne reverently before his ancestor." 42 Wu, the 
founder of the Chou dynasty, gave as a reason for over- 
throwing Shou, the last king of the Shang dynasty: "He 
neglects the temple of his ancestors and does not sacri- 
fice in it. The victims and the vessels of millet all be- 
come the prey of wicked robbers." 43 Of King Wen, 
the ancestor of the house of Chou, it is said: "He never 
offended against the laws enacted by his ancestors, and 
he offered to them the red bull in sacrifice. 44 Sacrifices 
were offered to Wen himself by his successors. "To the 
virtuous King Wen, worthy of glory and honour, princes 

41 Shu-king, II. i. 8. 

42 Ibid., IV. iv. 1. 

43 Ibid., V. i. Pt. i. 6. 
"■Shi-king, III. i. Odes 5 and 6. 




52 SPIRITISM ii 

and officials offer the red bull with great devotion." 45 
Concerning Wu, the founder of the Chou dynasty, we 
read : "On the day ting-wei he sacrificed in the ancestral 
temple of Chou, when the chiefs of the imperial domain, 
and of the tien, hou, and wei domains all hurried about 
carrying the dishes." 40 The Odes also narrate: "King 
Wu offered sacrifices to his meritorious father and accom- 
plished mother. A bull was offered, and the praises of 
Wen were sung, whose wisdom in peace and might in 
war gave repose even in high heaven." 47 King Ch'eng, 
the successor of Wu, "led his brilliant assembly of min- 
isters and princes to the shrine of his father, to whom 
he made his offerings and accomplished his filial duty." 48 

Deceased emperors were also worshipped at the time 
of the annual sacrifice on the altar of Heaven. On the 
top of the altar on the north side the tablet of Heaven 
was placed. On the east and west sides stood the tablets 
of the imperial ancestors. Before each tablet offerings 
of food were spread, the emperor burned sticks of in- 
cense, laid before each a piece of jade and a roll of silk, 
presented a bowl of broth, and poured out a libation of 
rice wine. This sacrifice was in existence in the time of 
the Emperor Shun, and it lasted down to the fall of the 
late Manchu dynasty. The sacrifice offered to Heaven 
was known as chiao, that to the ancestors as yin. 

The materials of sacrifice included every sort of food 
that was acceptable to men. These are enumerated in 
the odes of the Shi-king and in the ceremonial directions 
of the Li-ki. Bullocks, sheep and swine were the animals 
commonly offered. They were slain inside the gate of 
the ancestral temple, the fat was burned in a furnace for 
a sweet savour, and the meat was cooked and presented 
on platters before the ancestral tablets. Meat broth was 
also served, or poured out to the spirits as libations. One 

"Shi-king, IV. i. Odes 1-10. 
*" Shu-king, V. iii. 3. 
"Shi-king, IV. i. ii. Ode 7. 
48 Ibid., Ode 8. 



ii SPIRITISM IN CHINA 53 

of the odes of the Chou period says : "Oxen and sheep 
without blemish are brought in an orderly and reverent 
manner for the sacrifices in autumn and winter. Some 
men are deputed to cut up the flesh, others to boil it; 
some divide the meat, others set it out in order. Inside 
of the gate of the ancestral temple the officiating person 
presents his sacrifice. In its variety the service is com- 
plete and splendid in its general effect." 49 Fish of all 
sorts were presented to the deified emperors in the an- 
cestral temple at the time of the winter sacrifices. Fruits 
and vegetables also were offered. Cooked dishes in end- 
less variety were prepared by the ladies of the imperial 
harem to add to the sacrificial meats. In the earliest 
times water was the only liquid offered to the shades in 
libations (as in ancient Babylonia), and it retained its 
place in the ritual down to late times; but after the dis- 
covery of distillation it was thought that strong drink 
was more acceptable to the spirits. "Morning and eve- 
ning King Wen never wearied in teaching that strong 
drink must be used in sacrifice." This liquor was dis- 
tilled from various kinds of millet and rice, and was 
flavoured with different sorts of herbs and spices. Be- 
sides food and drink precious objects of any sort might 
be offered to the ancestors, such as gems, jade stones, 
precious metals and pieces of silk. To sum it all up, 
there was nothing valued by man that was not suitable 
in sacrifice to the dead. 

The sacrifices were accompanied with music, singing, 
and dancing. As one of the odes says: "The flute play- 
ers dance to the organ and the drum, the instruments all 
playing in harmony. This is done to gratify the merito- 
rious ancestors." 50 These dances were solemn panto- 
mimes exhibiting scenes in the lives of the famous fore- 
fathers. During the Chou period a favourite subject 
was Wu's victory over Shou, the last king of the Shang 

"Shi-king, II. vi. Ode 5, 
"Ibid., vii. Ode 6, 2. 



V 



54 SPIRITISM ii 

dynasty. Target practice was another ceremony "to 
give pleasure to the august personators of the dead." 
"The great target is set up, the bows and arrows are 
ready for the archers, who are matched in classes. 'Show 
your skill,' shouts one. 'I shall hit the mark,' responds 
the other, 'and then you will have to drink the cup.' 

The purpose of all these offerings is to provide the 
dead with the same things that they have enjoyed on 
earth. They need these things, and if they have no 
descendants to supply them, they suffer from the lack. 
When these offerings are presented, they draw near to 
enjoy them, they are pleased with the filial piety that is 
shown, and they bless the sacrificer. 

Sacrifices were at the same time feasts in which the 
living shared the viands with the dead and thus held 
communion with them. They were great family re- 
unions to which all the descendants and friends of the 
honoured dead were invited. One of these memorial 
feasts is described in the odes as follows: "When the 
guests first go to sit on their mats, they take their seats 
orderly on the left and the right. The dishes of bamboo 
and of wood are set out containing sauces and kernels. 
The liquors are blended and good. The guests drink 
with reverence. . . . The company is happy and full 
of joy, each exerting himself to the full extent of his 
ability. A guest draws the liquor, which an attendant 
takes in a cup. The full cup is handed to the guests — 
the cup of requiem (cf. Jeremiah, 16:7). . . . When 
the guests first take their seats on the mats they are har- 
monious and reverent. In manner they are dignified be- 
fore they have drunk too much; but after they have 
drunk too much their dignity disappears and their man- 
ners become frivolous. They leave their seats and dance 
and caper around. . . . Had they gone out before 
drinking so deeply, both host and guest would have been 
happier." At the conclusion of the feast the assembled 
guests praised the king who had invited them, saying: 



ii SPIRITISM IN CHINA 55 

"On account of your filial piety in offering sacrifices to 
the spirits of your ancestors, Heaven will protect and 
establish you, making you very strong and conferring 
upon you all happiness." 51 

These sacrificial feasts for the dead were celebrated 
regularly at the summer and winter solstices and at the 
vernal and autumnal equinoxes. "Once every season 
worship was performed. . . . They repaired and r 
beautified the temple of their ancestors, set forth the 
vessels that had belonged to them, displayed their vari- 
ous robes, and presented the offerings of the several 
seasons." 52 Ch'eng-I, a famous scholar of the eleventh 
century of our era, had a temple connected with his 
house and furnished with the spirit-tablets of his an- 
cestors. "Before these on the first day of each month 
he set forth fresh offerings. He observed the seasonal 
services in the second month of each season. At the 
winter solstice he sacrificed to his remotest ancestor; in 
the beginning of the spring, to his grandfather; and in 
the third month of autumn, to his father. On the anni- 
versary of a death, he removed the tablet of the in- 
dividual to the principal adytum of the temple, and there 
performed a special service; for the rites of the service 
of the dead ought to be observed more liberally than 
the duty of nourishing the living." 53 In the temple of 
the imperial ancestors there were also sacrifices on special 
occasions such as a time of drought or a time of war. 
The so-called Ti sacrifice was offered every fifth year to 
the remote ancestors of the emperor. On the fifteenth 
day of the seventh moon a sort of All Soul's Day was 
observed for the benefit of "hungry ghosts" who had no 
relatives to provide for them. On this day people gen- 
erally made offerings to these "orphan spirits" to ap- 
pease them and to keep them from troubling the living. 54 

61 Shi-king, II. vii. Ode 6. 

62 Doctrine of the Mean, Chap. xix. 

63 Legge, The Religions of China, p. 86. 
•* See p. 141f. 



56 SPIRITISM ii 

The value of the sacrifice depended largely upon the 
minute and punctilious performance of the traditional 
ceremonial, there was therefore a Minister of Ritual 
who had charge of all the services at the temple of the 
imperial ancestors. I-Yin, the minister of T'ang, said: 
"It is difficult to serve the spirits by sacrifice. The offer- 
ing must be made orderly and with reverence. If pre- 
sented in a disorderly and irregular fashion, it indicates 
a spirit of irreverence. If the ceremonial connected with 
it is troublesome or irritating, it causes disorder." At 
the same time with all this ritualism we find utterances 
concerning the nature of true worship that remind us of 
the Hebrew prophets. The same I-Yin just mentioned 
said also: "The ancestral spirits accept the sacrifices 
only of the sincere in heart." Another classical passage 
says: "The incense of good conduct is more acceptable 
to them than the most costly spices burnt in a censer." 
"The fragrant incense which moves the shen and the 
bright ones arises from perfect government and not from 
the sacrifice of millet"; with which may be compared I 
Samuel 15:22, "Behold to obey is better than sacrifice, 
and to hearken than the fat of rams." In the Li-ki it is 
said that sacrifice, being a fixed custom handed down from 
past ages and to be carried out in definite forms, should 
not be accompanied with prayer, or be offered in the hope 
of deriving any personal benefit therefrom. Confucius 
quoted this opinion with approval, but it is contrary to 
the spirit of the ancient Chronicles and of the Odes, 
where the rule is do ut des, and the expectation is that 
the sacrificer will receive a rich reward for his filial 
service. 

o. Prayer to the Dead. — All important events, such 
as births, marriage engagements, deaths, business under- 
takings, journeys and returns, are solemnly announced at 
the "family altar" before the ancestral tablets. In the 
Li-ki, V. i. 1, we are told: "Tseng-tzu asked: 'When 
a successor to the throne is born after the demise of 



ii SPIRITISM IN CHINA 57 

the ruler of the state, how is one to act?' Confucius 
said: 'The highest nobles, great officers and ordinary 
officers shall take a position behind the minister who 
administers the empire ad interim, at the south side 
of the western steps, turning their faces to the north. 
The Great Invoker, in his court robes and cap, bearing 
rolls of silk in his hands, shall then go up to the top of 
the western steps; and there, without entering the hall, 
he shall, when the wailers have been ordered to stop their 
cries, call three times (to the soul) and make announce- 
ment to it, saying: "The son of such-and-such a lady has 
been born; I presume to inform thee of this event." ' " 
At all sacrifices the ancestors are invoked to be present, 
and the hymns that are sung are largely praises of their 
virtues. The quality most celebrated in the forefathers is 
their filial piety toward their own ancestors. Petitions 
for blessing were presented to the shades in connection 
with all sacrifices; and in times of war, famine, pestilence, 
or other distress special litanies were addressed to them. 
The most famous instance of prayer to the dead in 
the ancient literature is the supplication of the Duke of 
Chou in behalf of his brother, King Wu. "He made 
three altars of earth on the same cleared space; and 
having made another altar on the south, facing the north, 
he there took his own position. The convex symbols 
were put on their altars, and he himself held his mace, 
while he addressed the kings T'ai, Chi and Wen. The 
historian wrote on tablets his prayer as follows : 'Wu, 
your chief descendant, is suffering from a severe and 
dangerous sickness. If you three kings have in heaven 
the charge of watching over him, the great son, let me, 
Tan, be a substitute for his person. I have been lovingly 
obedient to my father. I am possessed of many abilities 
and arts which fit me to serve spiritual beings. Your 
chief descendant, on the other hand, has not so many 
abilities and arts as I, and is not so capable of serving 
spiritual beings. Moreover, he was appointed in the 



58 SPIRITISM ii 

celestial hall to extend his aid to the four quarters of the 
empire so that he might establish your descendants in 
this lower world. The people of the four quarters stand 
in reverent awe of him. Oh! do not let that precious 
Heaven-conferred appointment fall to the ground, and 
our former kings will also have a perpetual reliance and 
resort.' " 55 One of the finest poems of the Shi-king 56 is a 
prayer of King Hsiian to his ancestors in time of drought. 

The spirits were believed to be specially attentive to 
prayers of an unselfish character. "The prayers of the 
men who strive after friendship will be heard by the 
shen, who will bestow upon them peace and harmony." 
Kings prayed therefore that their minds might be en- 
lightened so that they might follow the good example of 
their forefathers and bring peace and prosperity to their 
people. 

p. Exorcism of Spirits of the Dead. — This discussion 
would not be complete without some mention of the 
methods of driving away hostile spirits. As early as the 
Classics mention is made of the no or yang sacrifice to 
ward off evil spirits. This was performed three times 
in the year: in the last month of spring, in mid-autumn, 
and in the last month of winter. Victims were cut in 
pieces and placed in the city gates in order to ward off 
unpropitious influences. These sacrifices were occasions 
of noisy demonstration to frighten away the restless 
ghosts. In the Li-ki (IX. i. 16) it is recorded of 
Confucius, "When his fellow-citizens celebrated the 
yang, he put on his court robes and took position on the 
eastern steps, in order to shield his household gods." 
Evidently Confucius was afraid that the din of the yang 
might frighten away his ancestral spirits as well as the 
demons for which it was intended. 

The chief methods of exorcising evil spirits are offer- 
ings such as are presented to friendly spirits, and in addi- 

65 Shu-king, V. vi. 6-7. 
68 Shi-king, III. iii. Ode 4. 



ii SPIRITISM IN CHINA 59 

tion prophylactic rites such as are not needed in the case 
of good ghosts. Among the latter noises of every sort 
occupy a conspicuous place. Fire-crackers are exploded, 
gongs and drums are beaten, and trumpets are blown in 
order to terrify the spectres. Since evil demons belong 
to the Yin, or realm of darkness, they are successfully 
combatted with light, fire, and fire-works, which belong 
to the Yang principle of the universe. Devils are driven 
out of sick men by cauterizing them, or by giving them 
nasty drugs to drink. Peach wood has extraordinary 
virtue in warding off demons, hence twigs of this tree, 
or amulets made of its wood, are extensively used as 
charms. Pictures or images of tigers or of cocks are 
also efficacious. Weapons of various sorts when dis- 
played in conspicuous ways frighten the spirits away 
from houses. Written charms, especially passages from 
the Classical Books, are suspended at the doors of houses, 
or are worn on the person to avert evil influences. The 
wu, whom we have met already as mediums possessed 
by the spirits, act also as exorcists to drive away hostile 
ghosts. This is also the main function of the Taoist and 
Buddhist priests. In general it may be said that fear 
of evil spirits occupies quite as large a place in the 
Chinese mind as reverence for good spirits. 



CHAPTER III 

SPIRITISM AMONG THE INDO-EUROPEANS 

a. Distribution and Characteristics of the Indo-Euro- 
peans. — By Indo-Europeans we mean a group of races 
extending from Northern India to the Atlantic, which 
speaks kindred languages and possesses similar religions 
and social institutions. To this group belong: — 

i. The Aryans of Northern India. — In the second 
millennium B.C. this race began to push through the 
passes of the Himalayas and to settle in the Punjab. It 
drove the older Dravidian population before it, until 
they were expelled from Hindustan and were concen- 
trated in the Deccan, with the exception of slaves and 
low castes that were assimilated by the invaders. The 
language of the Aryans was Sanskrit, and in the Rig 
Veda we have a collection of their earliest hymns dating 
from about 1000-800 B.C. Later Sanskrit literature 
includes the remaining Vedas, the two great epics, the 
Mahabhdrata and Ramayana, the philosophic writings 
of the Brahmanas and Upanishads, the Laws of Manu, 
and many other works. 

2. The Iranians of Media and Persia. — The Irani- 
ans and the related nomadic tribes which the Assyrians 
called Gagu (Heb. Gog) and Umman Manda, and the 
Classical writers grouped under the general name of 
Scythians must have entered the ancient kingdom of 
Elam about the same time that the Aryans entered India. 
Their language Iranian, or Zend, appears in the inscrip- 
tions of the Achaemenian kings of the sixth century B.C. 
and in the Avesta, the sacred book of the Zoroastrian 
religion. Zoroaster, the prophet-reformer of Iran, who 

60 



in SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 61 

is believed to have flourished in the seventh century 
B.C., has left his teaching in the Gathas, the oldest por- 
tion of the Avesta. The other parts of the Avesta con- 
tain the later traditional development of his teaching. 
The Avesta has been preserved by the Parsees of the 
Bombay Presidency in India, who are the sole-remaining 
adherents of the ancient Zoroastrian religion. The lan- 
guage of the Achaemenian inscriptions and of the Avesta 
is as nearly related to Sanskrit as Spanish is to Italian. 

3. The Phrygians and Armenians of Asia Minor and 
Armenia. — Here the dominant class that gave its lan- 
guage and its institutions to the nation was akin to the 
Aryans of Persia and India, while the lower classes that 
eventually mixed with the conquerors were the aboriginal 
populations of the land. No ancient literature has come 
down from these peoples, but survivals of folk-lore 
among the Armenians throw light upon their primitive 
religious conceptions. 

4. The Hittite-Mitanni Group. — The Hittites are 
first mentioned in a Babylonian chronicle as invading 
Babylonia during the reign of Samsuditana, the last king 
of the first dynasty of Babylon ( 195 6-1 926 B.C.). From 
that time onward they play an important part in the 
history of Western Asia until their destruction by the 
Assyrian Empire after 1000 B.C. The excavation by 
Winckler of Boghazkeui, the ancient Hittite capital, dis- 
closed a large number of tablets written in Babylonian 
cuneiform characters but in the Hittite language. Since 
the death of Winckler these have been studied by F. 
Hrozn^r, 1 who maintains that their dialect belongs to 
the so-called centum, or western group of Indo-Germanic 
languages, which includes Greek, Italic, Germanic, and 
Celtic, in which the word for 'hundred' is centum (pro- 
nounced kentum) or a cognate; in distinction from the 
satem, or eastern group, in which the word for 'hun- 

1 Mittheilungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft, lvi, 1915; xxx, 1920; 
Boghazkbi-Studien, 1920. 



62 SPIRITISM m 

dred' is satem or a cognate. Its nearest affiliations are 
with Latin. 

The Mitanni people of Northern Syria, who first 
appear in the Tell el-Amarna letters, written to the 
Egyptian Pharaohs Amenhotep III and Amenhotep IV 
about 1400 B.C., were closely connected with the Hit- 
tites. Documents discovered at Boghazkeui show that 
the ruling dynasty in Mitanni worshipped the Aryan 
gods Varuna and Mithra. They called themselves Hard, 
which perhaps is identical with "Aryans." 2 

5. The Slaws. — The eastern branch of this race in- 
cludes the Great Russians of Russia proper, the White 
Russians of Western Russia who live along the upper 
waters of the Dnieper River, the Little Russians of the 
Ukraine and of Austria-Hungary where they are called 
Ruthenians, and the Cossacks of the Crimea and east- 
ward. The northern branch includes the Letts who in- 
habit the Russian provinces of Vitebsk, Livonia and 
Courland on the eastern side of the Baltic; the Lithu- 
anians south of the Letts; and the Prussians, who until 
the tenth century inhabited the lowlands at the mouths 
of the Niemen, Vistula and Oder. Later they were con- 
quered and Germanized by the Teutonic Knights. The 
western branch includes the Poles, whose kingdom was 
partitioned during the eighteenth century between Rus- 
sia, Austria, and Prussia, but which has been reconstituted 
as a result of the recent World-War; the Wends who 
dwell in the Spreewald on the upper waters of the River 
Spree in Saxony and Prussia ; the Czechs, or Bohemians, 
together with the Slovaks to the east and the Moravians 
to the south, who speak practically the same language, 
and are now united in the Republic of Czecho-Slovakia. 
The southern branch, or Jugo-Slavs, includes the Slo- 
venes, Slavonians, Dalmatians, Montenegrins, Serbians 

2 See H. Winckler, Mittheilungen der deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft, xxxv, 1908; 
E. Meyer, "Das erste Auftreten der Arier in der Geschichte," Sitzungsbericht 
d. konig. preuss. Akademie, Berlin, 1908, pp. 14ff. 



in SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 63 

and Bulgarians, who occupy a broad belt running from 
west to east, south of Austria-Hungary and Roumania. 
The Slavs have left no ancient literary records, but 
they have retained old ideas and institutions more per- 
fectly than any other branch of the Indo-European race. 
The White Russians have preserved ancestor-worship of 
a most primitive type in full force down to the present 
time. The North Slavic languages, Lettish, Lithuanian, 
and old Prussian, disclose some very early features of 
Indo-European speech. On one side they are closely 
related to Sanskrit, on another side to the West Slavic 
dialects; and they are nearer to Latin than they are to 
Celtic or Teutonic. They occupy a unique place in Indo- 
European philology. Among the North Slavs heathen- 
ism lasted longer than in any other part of Europe, so 
that their early institutions have remained unchanged 
almost down to the present. As late as 1550 the Lutheran 
pastor Jan Maleki (Meletius, or Menecius) reported in 
regard to the heathenism that still existed among the 
Prussian peasants, and about 1660 another Lutheran 
pastor, Matthaeus Praetorius, found the conditions un- 
changed. The Northern Slavs occupy much the same place 
among the Indo-Europeans that the Arabs do among the 
Semites. They have best preserved the primitive culture 
of their race. Consequently, students of comparative re- 
ligion go to them to find the earliest forms of rites that 
have been elaborated in India, Persia, Greece, and Italy. 
6. The Greeks. — As early perhaps as 1500 B.C. the 
Achaeans and Ionians had begun to settle in Northern 
Greece, and in the following centuries they gradually 
pressed southward, dispossessing or assimilating the older 
non-Aryan, Mediterranean race which was akin to the 
Berbers and Egyptians of North Africa. These abori- 
gines were called Pelasgians by the invaders. They were 
the originators of the splendid iEgean civilisation in 
Crete and at Troy, Mycenae and Tiryns that reached its 
culmination about 1500 B.C. The earliest Greek civili- 



64 SPIRITISM in 

sation is known to us only from archaeological remains, 
but the period from iooo B.C. onward is represented by 
the Homeric epics, which originally were transmitted 
orally, but which subsequently were committed to writ- 
ing about 700 B.C. From this time onward an un- 
broken stream of literature testifies to the beliefs of the 
ancient Greeks in regard to spirits of the dead. The 
Greek language and some elements of the Greek race 
survive among the modern Greeks and the Albanians. 

7. The Latins. — As early as the Achaean migration 
into Greece other Indo-European tribes penetrated Italy, 
driving before them the aboriginal Alpine and Mediter- 
ranean inhabitants of the peninsula. These tribes were 
eventually united under the rule of Rome, and Latin 
became the speech of the entire peninsula. It is nearly 
related to Greek on the one side and to Celtic on the 
other. 

8. The Celts. — In Classical times the Celts occupied 
the northern part of Italy, the Alps, and the regions west 
of the Alps, where they had dispossessed more or less 
completely the Picts, Ligurians, Iberians and other non- 
Aryan peoples. They were conquered by the Romans, 
and adopted the Latin language; so that the funda- 
mentally Celtic Walloons of Belgium and the Gauls 
speak French, and the Celto-Iberians of the Spanish 
peninsula speak Spanish and Portuguese, all of which are 
descendants of Latin. In the British Isles the Celts were 
conquered by Teutons, and here their languages have 
given place to English, a Teutonic tongue. Only in 
isolated corners of the old Celtic world have Celtic dia- 
lects survived. The Goidelic group includes the Gaels of 
northern Scotland, the Manx of the Island of Man, and 
the Irish. The Brythonic group includes the Welsh, the 
last survivors of the ancient Britons; the Cornish of 
Cornwall, which has become extinct within the last cen- 
tury; and the Bretons of Brittany in the northwest 
corner of France. The Celtic languages bear a much 



in SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 6s 

closer affinity to Latin than they do to any other Indo- 
European dialects. These languages possess no ancient 
literatures; still, in all the regions where they survive, 
exceedingly primitive beliefs and institutions have been 
preserved. 

9. The Teutons. — The original seat of this branch 
of the Indo-European race was in the Scandinavian pen- 
insula. Before the beginning of the Christian era they 
had forced their way in between the Celts and the Slavs, 
dispossessing or absorbing tribes of both races, and 
occupying the whole region north of the Alps between 
the Rhine and the Oder rivers. They menaced the Celts 
west of the Rhine, and Julius Caesar had to make a cam- 
paign against them in order to prevent their invasion of 
the Roman province of Gaul. In the fourth century 
under pressure of the Huns the Teutons again began to 
push westward and southward. After the downfall of 
the Huns under Attila in 451, the Teutons entered into 
their heritage. In 476 Odoacer, chief of the Heruli, 
sacked Rome and forced the last emperor to abdicate. 
In the course of the following century all the former 
provinces of the Roman Empire fell into the hands of 
the Vandals, Goths, Lombards, Burgundians, Franks and 
Saxons, branches of the Teutonic race, and it looked as 
though the Teutonizing of Europe would be complete; 
but the Celto-Roman civilisation of the Empire eventu- 
ally absorbed the conquerors, and the Teutonic lan- 
guages and institutions remained limited to the areas that 
had been occupied at the beginning of the Christian era. 
The present Teutonic peoples are the Icelanders, Nor- 
wegians, Swedes, Danes, Frisians, Dutch, Flemings, Brit- 
ish, and Germans. 

These then are the main branches of the Indo-Euro- 
pean race. It is frequently called the Aryan race, though 
less correctly, since this name belongs properly to the 
Indo-Iranians. No other race in history has spread so 
widely and has preserved its language and its institu- 



66 SPIRITISM m 

tions so tenaciously. No other race has played so large 
a part in the development of civilisation. It began its 
career later than the Hamites or the Semites, but it 
absorbed all that was best in their attainments and far 
outstripped them. Aryan civilisation now dominates the 
world; and the Arabic, Chinese, and other ancient Ori- 
ental cultures are rapidly disappearing before it. It is 
the most gifted race that humanity has produced, and it 
has lived in the most favourable environment. 

b. Civilisation of the Primitive Indo-Europeans. — 
The close resemblances of all the languages of the 
branches of this race prove that it must once have been 
a single people dwelling within a more contracted area. 
Its original home was probably the steppes of Eastern 
Russia and Western Asia. This region lies at the centre 
of the present Indo-European world, and is the natural 
cradle for a race of wanderers and conquerors. These 
steppes support only a nomadic population and yield 
only a scanty sustenance. When pasture and water be- 
come scarce, some tribes have to move out and seek new 
homes. The physical characteristics of this region are 
thus similar to those of Central Arabia, the cradle of 
the Semitic races, and to Central Asia, the cradle of the 
Turanian races. Here as early as 3000 B.C. there wan- 
dered over a vast area a group of tribes speaking similar 
dialects and possessing a similar degree of culture. Com- 
parative philology and archaeology reveal much of their 
primitive language and institutions. They knew the 
use of copper (or bronze), for the word for this metal 
is found in widely separated Indo-European languages; 
on the other hand, they did not know gold, silver, or 
iron, for these metals have different names in the differ- 
ent languages. Stone was still used for most of the 
weapons. They had clubs, axes, daggers, spears and 
lances, bows and arrows, but no swords or armour. They 
had cattle, sheep and goats, and also horses, which they 
used both for riding and for drawing carts and chariots. 



in SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 67 

Swine, geese, and other domestic fowl were as yet un- 
known to them. Agriculture was known to them, for 
the words for field, plough, sow, reap, grind, are common 
to most of the languages. They possessed the arts of 
spinning and weaving, they used boats, and they had huts 
and houses, and built folds for their cattle. They were 
patriarchally organised, and the house-father was both 
ruler and priest of his household. Groups of kindred 
families united under the leadership of an elected chief- 
tain called vls-pati, or 'lord of the settlers,' a name that 
still survives in the Lithuanian wiez-pati, or 'governor.' 
The most prominent feature in the religion of the 
primitive Indo-Europeans was the worship of the bright 
powers of nature. The most general name for 'god' • 
was deivos, 'heavenly,' from which comes Skr. devd, 
Lat. deuSy Ir. dia, Lith. diewas, and Old Nor. tivar. 
Chief among the heavenly ones was dyeus, 'the sky,' 
from which comes Skr. Dydus, Gr. Zeus, Lat. Jup-piter 
(i. e., 'sky-father'), Old Nor. Tyr, Old High Germ. 
Ziu, A. Sax. Tiu (from which comes Tues-day) . In Skr. 
Dydus has retained its primitive appellative meaning 
'sky,' in the other languages its etymology has been 
forgotten and it has become the personal name of the 
chief god of the pantheon. On the contrary, ouranos has 
retained in Greek its primitive meaning 'sky,' while in 
Sanskrit Varuna has become a great god. Other objects 
of worship were the sun, Skr. surya, Iran, hvar, Ar. 
arev, Gr. helios, Lat. sol, Celt, heul, Lith. sdule, Goth. 
sau'il; the moon, Skr. mas, Iran, mah, Armen. lilsin, Gr. 
mene, Lat. luna, Lith. menu, Goth, mena; the dawn, Skr. 
ushds, Iran, usah, Gr. eos, Lat. aurora, Lith. auszra. 
The thunder-god was worshipped by all the Aryans, but > 
under different appellations. In India and Mitanni he 
was known as Indra; among the Celts as Torannos, Irish 
Torann, Welsh Tarann, Cornish Taran; among the Teu- 
tons as Tonar, O. Nor. Thorr, O. H. Germ. Donar, 
Germ. Donner, Eng. Thunder. These Celtic and Teu- 



68 SPIRITISM in 

tonic names are all connected with Skr. standyati, Lat. 
tonat, 'it thunders.' Among the Lithuanians he was 
called Perkunas, which is the same as Slavic Perun and 
Sanskrit Parjanya, and probably also Armenian Erkin. 
There was also a lightning (fire) -god, Skr. Agni, 
Lat. ignis, Lith. ugriis, Slav, ogrii. In Latin and 
in Slavic the name retained its primitive meaning, but in 
Sanskrit the original signification was obscured, and 
therefore Agni developed into a great god. Besides 
these there was a vast number of so-called "departmental 
gods" who presided over different realms of nature or 
sections of human life. Comparative philology shows 
that the great gods are all later developments of par- 
ticular Aryan religions, and that the primitive faith had 
not risen above the level of so-called Animism or Poly- 
daemonism. 

A' second main feature of Indo-European religion was 
the worship of spirits of the dead. Over against the 
"heavenly ones," the bright powers of the upper world, 
stood a host of subterranean divinities, among whom 
spirits of the dead occupied the most conspicuous place. 
These two classes of divinities, nature-spirits and spirits 
of the dead, were distinct in their origin, in their func- 
tions, and in their manner of worship. The second of 
these must now receive our more detailed consideration. 3 

8 On ancestor-worship among the Indo-Europeans in general see H. Usener, 
Gotternamen, 1896; E. Meyer, Geschichte des Altertums, 2 1909, vol. i, part 2, 
pp. 754-838; O. Schrader, art. "Aryan Religion" in Hastings, Encyclopedia of 
Religion and Ethics, ii, 1910, pp. 11-57, and the literature given in both of these 
works; G. F. Moore, History of Religions, i, 1913; E. W. Hopkins, The History 
of Religions, 1918. 

On India, see Rig Veda, translated in Sacred Books of the East, xxxii, and xlvi, 
1891, 1897; Atharva Veda, translated by Whitney and Lanman, 1905; A. 
Barth, The Religions of India, translated by J. Wood, 1882; E. W. Hopkins, The 
Religions of India, 1895; W. Crooke, The Popular Religion and Folk-lore of 
Northern India, 1896; M. Bloomfield, The Religion of the Veda, 1908; W. 
Crooke, art. "Ancestor- worship (Indian)" in Hastings, Enc, Rel. and Eth., i, pp. 
450-454. 

On Persia, see The Avesta, translated by Darmesteter and Mills in Sacred Books 
of the East, iv, xxiii, xxxi, 1880-1897; A. V. W. Jackson, Zoroaster, the Prophet of 
Ancient Iran; E. Lehmann, art. "Ancestor-worship (Iranian)" in Hastings, Enc. 
Rel. and Eth., i. pp. 454f. ; J. H. Moulton, Early Zoroastrianism, 1913. 

On Armenia see M. Abeghian, Der Armenische Volksglaube, 1899. 

On the Greeks, see L. R. Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States, 1896-1909; 



in SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 69 

c. Indo-European Names for Spirits. — The early 
Aryans, like other ancient peoples, conceived of the soul 
as breath, wind, vapour, smoke, shadow, power; and 
these meanings underlie all the later words for soul or 
spirit. Thus Skr. at man, 'soul' = Germ, athem and Ir. 
athach, 'breath.' Skr. mdnas, 'soul' =Gr. menos, 'force,' 
which reappears in Lat. Minerva from Menes-ova. In 
the Vedas the collective term for spirits of the dead is 
pitdraSy 'forefathers' = Lat. patres. In the Avesta 
spirits of the dead are called fravashis. The word fro- 
vashi means 'expression,' or 'confession,' and is so used 
because the soul is the inner nature of a man. This is 
probably a theological development of Zoroastrianism 
which has displaced a simpler terminology. In Armen- 
ian the word for 'soul' and 'spirit' is ogi = Skr. dtmdn 
and Germ, athem, 'breath.' 

In Gr. pneuma means primarily 'breath,' and then 
'soul'; psuche likewise means 'breath, spirit,' and in 
Homer is used exclusively of the discarnate spirit. 

Miss J. E. Harrison, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, 1903; E. Rohde, 
Psyche, Seelencult und Unsterblichkeitsglaube der Griechen, 4 1907; E. G. Sihier, 
Testimonium Animce, 1908; A. Fairbanks, Handbook of Greek Religion, 1910; 
W. Ridgeway, Origin of Tragedy, 1910; H. M. Chadwick, The Heroic Age, 1912; G. 
Murray., Four Stages of Greek Religion, 1912; Miss J. E. Harrison, Themis, A 
Study of the Social Origins of Greek Religion; L. R. Farnell, art. "Greek Re- 
ligion" in Hastings, Enc. Rel. and Eth., vi, 1914, pp. 392-425; C. H. Moore, 
The Religious Thought of the Greeks, 1916. 

On the Romans, see F. Granger, The Worship of the Romans, 1895; W. W. 
Fowler, The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic, 1899; J. B. Carter, 
The Religion of Numa, 1906; J. B. Carter, art. "Ancestor-worship (Roman)" in 
Hastings, Enc. Rel. and Eth., i, 1908, pp. 461-466; W. W. Fowler, The Religious 
Experience of the Roman People, 1911. 

On the Celts, see J. Rhys, Celtic Heathendom, 1888; J. A. Macculloch, The 
Religion of the Ancient Celts, 1911; G. Henderson, Survivals in Belief among 
the Celts, 1911; A. Macbain, Celtic Mythology and Religion, 1917. 

On the Slavs, see Peter of Dusburg in Scriptores Rerum Prussicarum, vol. i; 
Joannes Menecius, de sacrificiis et idolatria veterum Borussorum, Livonum, aliarum~ 
que vicinarum gentium, in Scriptores Rerum Livonicarum, ii; M. Praetorius, Deli- 
ci<£ Prussicce, oder preussische Schaubuhne, ed. W. Pierson, 1871; F. S. Krauss, 
Sitte und Branch der Sudslaven, 1885; J. W. E. Mannhardt, Antike Wald-und 
Feldkulte aus nordeurop'dische Ueberlieferung erldutert, 1875-7, 2d ed. 1905; H. 
Usener, Gotternamen, 1896, pp. 79-122; L. Leger, La Mythologie Slave, 1901; 
art. "Ancestor-worship (Slavonic)" in Hastings, Enc. Rel. and Eth. i, 1908, pp. 466. 

On the Teutons, see E. H. Meyer, Germanische Mythologie, 1891; P. D. 
Chantepie de la Saussaye, The Religion of the Teutons, 1902; F. B. Gummere, 
Germanic Origins, 1892; W. Golther, Handbuch der germanischen Mythologie, 
1895. 



7 o SPIRITISM m 

Thumos, which is used by Homer as a synonym of psuche, 
is the same as Skr. dhumd, Lat. fumus, 'smoke.' Another 
ancient Greek term for 'spirit' is ker f which is the same 
as ker, 'heart.' This is used because the heart, as the 
chief receptacle of blood in the body, is regarded as the 
seat of the soul. 4 In Homer the collective body of the 
departed is known as nekues, 'the dead,' or en(f)eroi 
=. Lat. inferi, 'those beneath' ; but instead of these ex- 
plicit terms later writers preferred euphemisms such as 
aoroi, 'the untimely,' or chrestoi, 'the beneficent.' 

In Latin anlma means 'breeze, breath, life,' and anima 
is used of spirits of the dead. Animus is 'soul' and is 
identical with Greek anemos, 'wind.' The Latin concep- 
tion of the genius is peculiar. Genius is derived from 
gigno, 'beget,' and the marriage -bed is known as lectus 
geniaiis. Every man has his genius and every woman 
her juno. On the birthday rites of worship were paid to 
one's genius or juno as the case might be. The celebrant 
clad in white, with a garland on his head, offered incense, 
cakes and wine and prayed for protection during the 
coming year. Buildings, regions, towns, cities, trades, 
and other groups of men, were thought to have their 
genii. The genius, accordingly, seems to have been a 
guardian-spirit, who was born with a man, and who 
shared his experiences in life and in death. The concep- 
tion was thus similar to the Egyptian ka, and may have 
been derived from the pre-Latin inhabitants of Italy, 
who probably belonged to the same Mediterranean race 
as the Egyptians. 5 Spirits of the dead were grouped 
under the collective name of di manes, 'kind gods,' a 
euphemism designed to avoid actual mention of their 
names. They were also known as inferi, 'those beneath' 
and umbra, 'shadows, shades.' Apparently the lares 
were guardian-spirits of the hearth and of the home, who 
were honoured with domestic rites, and were originally 

*See p. 201. 
•See p. 155. 



in SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 71 

the ancestors of the family who watched over its in- 
terests. Etymologically the word is connected with larva, 
'ghost,' and with larentalia, the festival of the dead. 

The Celts of Gaul, according to Augustine, 6 and Isi- 
dore, 7 called spirits of the dead dusii. The word is con- 
nected with Lith. dwdse, 'breath' 'spirit,' and dusas, 
'vapour,' and with Old Slav, duchu, 'breath,' 'spirit,' 
and dusa, 'soul.' In the same series probably belongs Gr. 
theos, 'god,' from an original th(f)esos. 

Among the Slavs the peasants of Great Russia speak 
of the dead as roditeli, 'parents,' and those of White 
Russia as dzjady, 'grandfather.' These terms are ap- 
plied to deceased relatives of both sexes and even to 
children. They correspond to the Sanskrit pitdras. 

The Goths, according to Jordanis (chap. 13), called 
their deified ancestors arises. This is probably connected 
with Skr. dsu, 'breath,' life,' and with Skr. dsura and 
Avest. ahura, 'god,' 'lord,' which appears in Ahura- 
mazda, the supreme God of the Avesta. The Norse 
equivalent asen denoted the highest gods of the pantheon. 
On the other hand, in Ang. Sax. the word ese was de- 
graded to mean 'elves.' The Norse word for 'soul' is 
fylgja, 'follower.' It is evidently developed out of the 
shadow which follows a man, and it corresponds to the 
Latin umbra. Our word sold, German Seele, probably 
means 'lively,' 'active,' like the Skr. mdnas. Our word 
ghost, German Geist, 'spirit,' as in Old English and in 
the combination Holy Ghost, is etymologically connected 
with gust. 

These names show that the primitive Indo-Europeans 
did not conceive the spirits of the dead as immaterial, 
but as having an ethereal substance like the living body. 
This view is confirmed by narratives of the appearances 
of ghosts. In all cases they have shadowv or vaporous 

a Civ, Dei, xv. 23. 

1 Lib. Etytnol. viii. 11, 103. 



72 SPIRITISM in 

forms that resemble those in which they appeared on 
earth. 

d. Powers Retained by the Dead. — The future life 
was conceived by the Indo-Europeans as essentially sim- 
ilar to the present life. The dead dwelt in communities 
and carried on the same occupations that they had fol- 
lowed on earth. They still needed food, clothing and 
shelter; and, strange to say, they were unable to provide 
these for themselves, but depended on the generosity of 
the living. Hence everywhere the need was felt for sons 
to keep up the ancestral cult ; and if there were no sons, 
others were adopted to perform their functions. 

In the Rig Veda the dead still require food, and come 
back to their former homes to demand it. If they are 
not fed, they will vent their wrath upon their families. 
In the Ramayana sons are considered necessary in order 
that they may make the proper offerings to the shades of 
their fathers. In the modern cremation ritual the Brah- 
man says: "Unwillingly do the manes of the deceased 
taste the tears and rheum shed by their kinsmen ; then do 
not wail, but diligently perform the obsequies of the 
dead." 8 

In the Avesta 9 we read: "We invoke the good, the 
mighty, the holy fravashis of the righteous, who descend 
to the villages at the time of the Hamaspathmaedaya, and 
return thither every night for ten nights to ask for help. 
Will anybody praise us? Will anybody pay homage to 
us? Who will accept us among his own? Who will 
bless us? Who will receive us with a handful of meat, 
and a garment, and sacred reverence?" The passage 
goes on to say that the person who will fulfil these obli- 
gations shall be richly blessed during the coming year. 
In Greece food was placed in graves and upon them, and 
in some parts of the land tubes were inserted in graves 
through which the blood of sacrifices could flow down 

8 Colebrooke, Asiatic Researches, p. 245. 
• Yasht, xiii. 49-52. 



in SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 73 

to the dead. In the Odyssey 10 the shades eagerly lap 
the blood that Odysseus has poured into the sacrificial 
trench, and he has to drive away with his sword those 
whom he does not wish to consult. 

On Roman tombstones the dead beg for offerings. 
"Travellers who crown me and offer me flowers," says 
Victor Fabianus, "may ye find the gods propitious." A 
little child asks its playmates to come to its grave, bring- 
ing cups of wine, and to pray that the earth may lie light 
upon her. The jus manium, or dues of the dead, formed 
an important topic in early Roman law. The funda- 
mental principle was that the offerings to ancestors should 
not be remitted: perpetua sacra sunto. Cicero 11 cites 
an ancient law: "Let private sacrifices continue forever," 
"Keep sacred the laws concerning the divine dead." The 
first duty of an heir was to care for these offerings, and 
their expense constituted a first lien on the estate. The 
adoption of an heir always involved abjuring of the 
ancestral obligations of his own clan. This required the 
consent of the Comitia Curiata, and was not permitted 
unless there were other persons capable of carrying on 
the ancestral cult in the family which was abandoned. 

e. Powers Gained by the Dead. — 1. Spirits of the 
Dead Possess Superhuman Powers of Motion. — They 
are capable of moving at will with great rapidity from 
place to place. In the Avesta 12 it is said that when the 
fravashis are summoned, "they come flying like a well- 
winged bird." Odysseus says to the ghost of Elpenor: — 

"How earnest thou 
Elpenor, hither into these abodes 

Of night and darkness? Thou hast made more speed, 
Although on foot, than I in my good ship." 13 

10 xi, 34ff. 

u De Legibus, ii. 22. 
*Yasht, xiii. 70. 
18 Odyssey, xi. 57ff. 



74 SPIRITISM m 

The assumption among all the Indo-Europeans that 
spirits of the dead can come when called to receive the 
offerings that are made by the living presupposes ex- 
traordinary powers of locomotion. 

2. Spirits Show Themselves in Winds. — Since they 
were themselves "breath" and "wind," it was natural 
that they should reveal themselves in atmospheric phen- 
omena. In India and in Persia "good" and "bad" winds 
were distinguished. "Good" winds were the souls of 
the friendly dead, while "bad" winds were the restless 
ghosts of those for whom the proper funeral rites had 
not been performed. Similarly in Greece the winds were 
sometimes favourable spirits to whom white sheep were 
sacrificed, and sometimes hostile spirits to whom black 
sheep were offered. The Harpies were destructive wind- 
spirits who wrecked ships and snatched away men's souls 
to Hades. They were represented in art as human- 
headed birds, precisely like the representations of souls. 
Deadly winds were habitually called by euphemistic 
names such as Euraquilo or Euroclydon. Penelope prays: 

"I would that thou wouldst send into my heart 
A shaft to take my life, or that a storm 
Would seize and hurl me through the paths of air, 
And cast me into Ocean's restless stream, 
As once a storm, descending, swept away 
The daughters born to Pandarus." 14 

A Harpy was the mother by Zephyros of the horses 
of Achilles, Stormy winds were regarded as troops of 
restless ghosts coursing through the air with Hekate, 
a goddess of the Underworld. 15 Similar conceptions in 
Teutonic mythology are Woden, "the Wind," the wild 
huntsman who rushes through the sky with the host of 
spirits of the dead; the Valkyries, who correspond to the 
Greek Harpies, the snatchers of souls; and the "Wind- 

14 Odyssey, xx. 6 Iff. 

16 Iliad, xvi. 150; see Rohde, Psyche* i, 72; ii, 83f., 264. 



in SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 75 

bride" of Germanic folk-lore who steals away the souls 
of men. 

3. Spirits Occupy Inanimate Objects. — Among the 
low caste tribes of India small images are prepared to 
receive spirits of the dead. The Roman noble kept in 
his atrium the imagines, or portraits of his forefathers, 
which were originally portrait-masks that covered the 
faces of the dead. These were probably fitted on to 
statues or busts, and at funerals were worn by actors 
who impersonated the dead. These masks were perhaps 
a development out of primitive statues that were in- 
habited by the spirits. Among the Celts standing stones 
were the dwelling-places not only of gods but also of the 
manes, 1Q and among all the Indo-Europeans the tomb- 
stone was felt to stand in a peculiarly intimate relation 
to the soul of the dead so that offerings were placed upon 
it. 

Lots were controlled by ghosts as well as by gods, so 
that they were consulted for information in regard to the 
present and the future. Traces of this custom are found 
among all the Aryan peoples, but in Italy the institution 
attained its greatest development. The sortes, or 'lots' 
(from severe, 'string'), were small plates bearing in- 
scriptions that were strung together on a cord. One of 
these tablets was drawn, and the inscription upon it was 
interpreted as an answer to the inquiry. Such lots were 
found at various sanctuaries, but the most famous were 
those at Praeneste, which are described in detail by 
Cicero. 17 The lots, which were discovered in dim an- 
tiquity, were inscribed on oak tablets, and were kept in a 
chest of olive wood. They were drawn by a boy. Cicero 
carefully distinguishes between lots of this sort "which are 
endued with a divine instinct and afflatus," and ordinary 
lots which are used in playing games. The Roman state- 
religion made no official use of the lots, which probably 

18 Henderson, Survivals in Belief among the Celts, pp. 198ff. 
17 De Divinatione, ii, 41ff. 



76 SPIRITISM m 

indicates that they were not associated with the great 
gods of the state, but with lesser spirits of the dead. 

4. Spirits Occupy Plants or Animals. — Among the 
Greeks and the Romans it was customary to plant trees 
upon graves, and it was thought that the souls of the 
dead inhabited these trees. Mountain nymphs planted 
elms upon the mound of Eetion. 18 When iEneas up- 
rooted a myrtle on the grave of Polydorus, the tree bled 
and he heard a voice from the mound saying: "Why, O 
iEneas, do you hurt wretched me? Spare now the 
buried. Refrain thy reverent hands from guilt." 19 Vergil 
tells us that in the open space at the entrance to Orcus a 
mighty elm tree stands. It spreads its aged branches 
with their deep shadows over a vast space. Men say 
that deceitful dreams take up their abode here, and 
cling to all the leaves, 20 Here souls of the dead are con- 
ceived both as dreams and as birds, and they inhabit the 
elm. This is evidently a fragment of old Italic folk-lore. 

The re-incarnation of spirits in the bodies of animals 
or of men we shall consider later in connection with 
the doctrine of metempsychosis. 21 

5. Spirits Obsess Living Men. — In India even the Rig 
Veda contains a strong infusion of demonology, and the 
Atharva Veda is full of it. In viii. 6 it gives a lengthy 
enumeration of ghosts and goblins of every sort, among 
whom are restless spirits of the dead. There are also 
a number of exorcisms of evil spirits that have entered 
into men, for instance, in ix. 8 the bhuts, or 'spooks,' lurk 
everywhere, ready to jump into men on the slightest op- 
portunity; and when they have entered they afflict their 
victims with all sorts of diseases. In the Mahabharata, 
iii. 96, we are told of a particular demon called daiteya 
that had the habit of cooking its younger brother and 
serving him up as meat to saints, After the saint had 

18 Iliad, vi. 419f. 
"Mneid, iii. 19-68. 
20 Ibid., vi. 282ff. 
31 See p. 98. 



in SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 77 

partaken of the tempting dish, the demon called his 
brother who came out bursting the saint asunder. 

In the Persian religion of the Avesta\ all diseases are 
evil spirits of one sort or another that have entered into 
men. They stand in the service of Ahriman, and are 
opposed by Ahura Mazda and the good spirits who seek 
to deliver men from their wiles. 

In Greece the host of Hekate as it courses through 
the air brings to men uncleanness, mischief, distressing 
dreams, nightmares, frightful visions, epilepsy, and in- 
sanity. The keres, or 'ghosts,' are often described as 
bringing diseases to men. Hesiod tells of a golden age 
when 

"Of old the tribes of mortal men on earth 
Lived without ills, aloof from grievous toil, 
And catching plagues which keres give to men. 

The woman with her hands took the great lid 
From off the cask and scattered them, and thus 
Devised sad cares for mortals. 

• ••••• 

For other myriad evils wandered forth 
To man, the earth was full, and full the sea. 
Diseases, that all round by day and night 
Bring ills to mortals, hovered, self-impelled, 
Silent, for Zeus, the Counsellor, their voice 
Had taken away." 22 

Pandora is the earth-goddess, and the cask which she 
opens is the pithos, or jar, in which the ancient Greeks 
were buried, from which spirits of the dead emerge. In 
a vase-painting Hermes, leader of souls, is represented 
as opening such a pitho.s, from which the keres emerge as 
little winged figures. Plato says, 23 "There are many 
fair things in the life of mortals, but in most of them 
there are as it were adherent keres which pollute and 
disfigure them." As prophylactic measures against the 

"Hesiod, Works and Days, 90S. 
23 Laws, xi. 937. 



78 SPIRITISM m 

keres, pitch was spread on doors to catch them as they 
tried to flutter in, and buckthorn was chewed so as to 
expel them by its cathartic qualities. The gods were 
invoked for protection against their ravages. Thus in 
an Orphic hymn to Herakles we read: — 

"Come, blessed hero, come and bring allayments 
Of all diseases. Brandishing thy club, 
Drive forth the baleful fates; with poisoned shafts 
Banish the noisome keres far away." 24 

In general the dead are regarded as hostile to the 
living, jealous of their health and well-being, and anxious 
to bring others into the same condition as themselves. 
In the Vedic period in India the dead are more feared 
than loved, and are believed to be constantly seeking 
new recruits for the kingdom of Yama. In Homer the 
costly ceremonies of cremation are designed to secure 
that spirits of the dead may descend to Hades where 
they will no more trouble the living. The ghost of 
Patroclus says to Achilles: "Nevermore shall I return 
to earth when once the fire shall have consumed me." 25 

The Romans believed that spirits of the dead wan- 
dered by night seeking to smite the living with fatal 
diseases. The grave-inscriptions frequently speak of the 
manes as having come to fetch the living. Thus an 
inscription from Corduba says: "The manes have taken 
Abullia." 26 At the festival of the Compitalia dolls in 
human form were hung up for the lares, "that they 
might spare the living and be satisfied with trifles and 
images." 27 The chief motive for sacrifice to the dead 
was the fear that they would avenge themselves if they 
were neglected. Ovid tells how "once upon a time the 
great feast of the dead was not observed, and the manes 
failed to receive the customary gifts, the fruit, the salt, 

24 See J. E. Harrison, Prolegomena, pp. 165-175. 

26 Iliad, xxiii. 75. 

28 Corpus Inscriptionum hat. ii. 2255. 

27 Festus, s. v. pile, ed. Dacerius, p. 346. 



in SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 79 

the grain steeped in unmixed wine, the violets. The 
injured spirits avenged themselves on the living, and 
the city was surrounded with the funeral fires of their 
victims." 28 So fearful were men that they had not per- 
formed the rites of the dead properly that every year 
before the reaping of harvest a sow (porca pracidanea) 
was sacrificed to the subterranean deities "by him who 
had not given the dead his due," lest they should cause 
the failure of crops. The manes punished with special 
rigour any crimes that impaired the vigour of the family 
because these interfered with the regular performance 
of the ancestral rites. A law ascribed to- Romulus 
enacted that a man who sold his wife should be dis 
manibus sacer f "devoted to the divine shades." The 
reason for this was that he would have no children to 
keep up the ancestral rites. A child who struck his 
parent, or the violator of a grave, was also given over 
to the dead. 29 The manes punished with death all 
breaches of the mos maiorum, "the tradition of the 
elders." When the Potitii, who had charge of an ances- 
tral cult at the Great Altar, shifted their responsibility 
to the public slaves, "the whole family of the Potitii 
was blotted out within a short time, and the vengeance 
of heaven was visited upon the censor Appius, upon 
whose advice they had acted, for a few years after 
he lost his sight." 30 

In similar manner the modern peasants of White 
Russia are filled with dread "lest at the commemora- 
tion festival any mistake should be made. Then, to 
speak in the language of the peasants, the feast would 
be no feast. It would mean that they did not respect 
the memory of the person in whose honour the feast 
was instituted. As a punishment for disrespect for the 
dead there would follow at once family discord, death 

28 Fasti, ii. 549-554. 

"Plutarch, Romulus, 22; Festus, s. v. parici, CIL. x. 4355. 

"Livy, ix. 29. 



80 SPIRITISM m 

of cattle, failure of crops; in short, mountains and hills 
would fall upon the living." 

6. Spirits Possess Living Men. — In India the feed- 
ing of Brahmans at funeral feasts and other rites of 
ancestor-worship is regarded as identical with feeding 
the pitaras. Throughout Northern India large numbers 
of Brahmans live exclusively from the funeral offerings. 
In White Russia beggars take the place of the Brahmans. 
They repeat their songs and prayers, and are bountifully 
fed in return. At Roman funerals impersonators were 
chosen to represent the ancestors. They wore their 
death-masks that were preserved in the family atrium, 
were dressed in their garments, wore their insignia of 
office, and sat in state in their ivory chairs of office. 
They received the new-comer into their company, and 
partook of the funeral meats that were laid before 
them. When the ceremony was over, the masks were 
returned to their boxes in the atrium and continued to 
share in the life of the family. 31 They bore a strong 
resemblance to the impersonators of the dead in China, 
and can be explained only on the supposition that they 
were possessed by ancestral spirits. 32 

Dreams were widely regarded as due to possession 
by the dead. In various parts of Greece there were 
chasms which were believed to communicate with the 
Underworld, through which the shades could arise. 
Here there were sanctuaries at which dream-oracles were 
given. The inquirer offered a sacrifice and slept within 
the sacred enclosure, the dead then appeared to him. A 
famous sanctuary of this sort was at Thesprotia. Here 
Herodotus records that Periander, tyrant of Corinth, 
"consulted the oracle of the dead upon the Acheron con- 
cerning a pledge which had been given him by a stranger; 
and Melissa appeared, but refused to speak or to tell 
where the pledge was — she was chill, she said, having no 

81 Polybius, vi. 53. 

82 See p. 28. 



in SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 8 1 

clothes; the garments buried with her were of no man- 
ner of use, since they had not been burnt." Periander 
then stripped the women of Corinth of their finest 
apparel and burnt the clothes in a pit. "This done, he 
sent a second time to the oracle, and Melissa's ghost told 
him where he would find the stranger's pledge." 33 There 
was a similar oracle at Phigalia in Arcadia. 34 

The soul of Patroclus appears to Achilles in a dream. 35 
Penelope says: — 

"Of dreams, O stranger, some are meaningless 
And idle, and can never be fulfilled. 
Two portals are there for their shadowy shapes, 
Of ivory one, and one of horn. The dreams 
That come through the carved ivory deceive 
With promises that never are made good; 
But those that pass the doors of polished horn, 
And are beheld of men, are ever true." 36 

This is imitated by Vergil 37 at the end of his descrip- 
tion of Hades: "There are twin gates of Sleep, whereof 
the one is said to be of horn. By this an easy exit is 
afforded to the true shades. Another gleams with the 
polish of dazzling ivory. By it the manes send false 
dreams to heaven." The meaning is that dreams which 
come through the gate of ivory (the teeth), that is, 
which one hears, are less reliable than those which come 
through the gate of horn (the cornea of the eye), that 
is, which one sees. Both passages connect dreams with 
spirits of the dead. In this connection mention should 
be made of the passage in Vergil cited above in which 
dreams are compared to birds that roost in the elm 
tree at the gate of Hades. 38 

Tertullian records that among the Celts those who 

83 Herodotus, v. 92; Pausanias, ix. 30, 3. 
3 * Pausanias, iii. 17, 8f. 
85 Iliad, xxiii, 65ff. 
36 Odyssey, xix, 559ff. 

87 Mneid, vi. 893ff. 

88 See p. 76. 



82 SPIRITISM m 

sought hidden knowledge slept on graves, hoping to be 
inspired by the spirits of the dead. 39 

A higher form of spirit-possession is that in which a 
man's mind is controlled by the indwelling spirit so that 
he becomes a medium through whom the thought and 
the will of the spirit are communicated. This is akin 
to the inspiration of prophets by the gods. The phe- 
nomena of telepathy and telesthesia, of mind-reading 
and foreboding, of hypnotism and divided personality, 
were explained by all the Indo-Europeans as due partly 
to possession by gods and partly to possession by spirits 
of the dead. 

The following instances of mediumship in India are 
given by W. Crooke : 40 "A man enters with his legs 
girt with bells, the music of which is supposed to scare 
away the malevolent spirits which are present at 
the time of a death. He advances with short steps, 
rolling his eyes and staggering to and fro, sawing 
the air with two short sticks which he holds in his 
hands, and thus works himself into a frenzied state 
of inspiration, while the mourners wail and ask why 
the dead has been taken from them. Presently a con- 
vulsive shiver attacks the medium, who staggers more 
violently, and at last falls to the ground. He tries to 
support himself by holding one of the poles of the funeral 
shed, when he gasps out disjointed sentences which are 
taken to be the voice of the god." "A girl becomes pos- 
sessed by the spirit, and talks and acts, it is said, just 
like the person who has lately died, calling the children, 
relatives, and friends by name, and giving commands for 
the future conduct of the surviving members of the 
family. After this the spirit is severed from earthly 
trammels and attains heavenly bliss." 

In Greece we have a case of spirit-possession in the 
second-sight of Theoklymenos : — 

89 De Anima, 57. 

40 Hastings, Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, x. 130. 



in SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 83 

"Then spake the godlike Theoklymenos : — 
'Unhappy men ! what may this evil be 
That overtakes you? Every brow and face 
And each one's lower limbs are wrapped in night, 
And moans arise, and tears are on your cheeks. 
The walls and all the graceful cornices 
Between the pillars are bedropped with blood, 
The portico is full, these halls are full 
Of shadows, hastening down to Erebus 
Amid the gloom. The sun is blotted out 
From heaven, and fearful darkness covers all.' " 41 

The Pythia at Delphi received her inspiration in his- 
toric times from Apollo ; but Apollo had dispossessed an 
earlier serpent-god, and the Pythia became ecstatic by 
inhaling a vapour that rose through a fissure in the earth. 
Evidently she was originally possessed by a chthonic 
deity. Lucan 42 tells how the god penetrated her body 
and forced her to yield to his guidance, how she shook 
the sacred garlands from her head and overturned the 
vessels of the temple in her efforts to escape the divine 
afflatus, how finally she succumbed and uttered words 
that were not her own but those of the god who con- 
trolled her. 

The Sibyls of Italy seem to have been similar mediums 
through whom the dead communicated with the living. 
In the iEneid Vergil represents the Cumaean Sibyl as 
conducting iEneas into the Underworld. She lives in a 
cave, and near by is Lake Avernus, the entrance to 
Hades. Vergil describes her ecstasy: "Even as she 
spoke neither her features nor her complexion remained 
the same, nor was her hair confined within its braid; her 
bosom heaved, and her wild heart was swollen with 
frenzy; her stature was larger to the sight, her voice no 
longer human : so soon was she inspired by the breath of 
the god as it came ever nearer. ... At length, no longer 
submitting herself to Phoebus, the prophetess rages 

41 Odyssey, xx. 351ff. 
«V. 161ff. 



84 SPIRITISM in 

furiously in her cavern, if so be that she may succeed 
in flinging off the mighty god from her bosom. All the 
more he plies her frenzied mouth, subduing her wild 
heart, and fashions her to his will by constraint." Here, 
in imitation of the Pythia, the Sibyl receives her inspira- 
tion from Apollo, but it is evident that originally she 
was conceived as a spirit-medium. 43 

This Cumaean Sibyl was the reputed author of the 
famous Sibylline Books in which her ecstatic predictive 
utterances were collected. According to the legend, she 
offered nine books for sale to King Tarquinius Priscus. 
When the King refused her price, she burnt three of 
the books, and still asked the same price for the re- 
mainder. When he refused once more, she burnt three 
more books, and continued to demand the same price. 
The King now became alarmed, and bought the remain- 
ing three at the full price. These books were kept in 
the temple on the Capitoline Hill, and were consulted 
in all times of national crisis. 

Among the Celts mediums possessing the power of 
second-sight have existed from the earliest times down 
to the present. "A great obnubilation was conjured 
up for the bard so that he slept a heavy sleep, and things 
magic-begotten were shown him to enunciate, apparently 
in his sleep. This was called "illumination by rhymes," 
and a similar method was used in Wales. When con- 
sulted, the seer roared violently until he was beside him- 
self, and out of his ravings the desired information was 
gathered. When aroused from this ecstatic condition, 
he had no remembrance of what he had uttered. Giral- 
dus reports this, and thinks, with the modern spiritualist, 
that the utterance was caused by spirits. The resem- 
blance to modern trance-utterance and to similar methods 
used by savages is remarkable, and psychological science 

48 JEneid, vi. 45ff. 



in SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 85 

sees in it the promptings of the subliminal self in 
sleep." 44 

Among the Teutons we find trolls, witches and wise 
women, all of whom were mediums controlled by spirits. 
They worked themselves up into the hypnotic trance by 
incantations, and then either fared forth on the wings 
of the storm to visit distant places, or were inspired 
to reveal hidden things and to predict the future. The 
Norse Volves were professional mediums who enjoyed 
high esteem. They had magic chairs, magic wands, and 
a company of boys and girls who chanted the songs that 
induced the prophetic trance. In the winter season when 
the spirits were abroad they journeyed from farm to 
farm in pursuit of their art, and were everywhere hos- 
pitably received. 

7. Spirits Appear to Men in Bodily Form. — Appari- 
tions of the dead to the living are well known in all 
parts of the Indo-European world. This happens fre- 
quently, though not necessarily, in the presence of a 
medium who has the power of "materialising" spirits. 
Such ghosts belong as a rule to three main classes : first, 
those who have died untimely deaths, namely miscar- 
riages, children that have died in infancy, youths and 
maidens who have died unmarried, married persons who 
have died without children, and women who have died 
in childbirth; second, those who have died violent deaths, 
namely the murdered, suicides, and those who have fallen 
in battle ; third, those who have not received funeral rites, 
or have not received the proper rites. All these troubled 
spirits fail to enter the Underworld in peace, are envious 
of the living, and are likely to appear and make demands 
upon them. 45 

In India these three classes are known as preta, from 
the root pre, 'depart,' ; bhuta, 'demon' ; and pisdcha, 'flesh- 

44 Macculoch, Religion of the Ancient Celts, p. 249. 

45 On the unburied see above, pp. 8, 36. 



86 SPIRITISM in 

eater.' They appear in the forms that they wore on 
earth, or with small, thick, red bodies and horrible 
faces with lions' teeth. They come to blows with men, 
and carry them off to remote places. They assault 
women, and women are reported to have become with 
child by them. They operate chiefly at night, but noon 
is also a dangerous time, when women especially should 
not go about unprotected. They speak a "goblin speech," 
which is a sort of gibberish uttered in a high nasal tone. 46 

In Persia such unhappy spirits are classed under the 
general name daeva, which includes evil spirits of all 
sorts that are in the service of Ahriman. Etymologically 
the word is identical with Sanskrit deva, 'god,' and Latin 
dtvus, 'divine' ; but in the Zoroastrian religion it is ap- 
plied only to evil spirits, just as in Judaism and Chris- 
tianity the gods of the ancient world have been degraded 
to the position of devils. Among the daevas must be 
included spirits of the dead, since they love foulness and 
decay and are specially numerous in the vicinity of the 
dakhmas, or towers of silence, where corpses are exposed. 
They appear in human form, they come at night, and 
they vanish at the rising of the sun. 47 

In Greece the three main classes of appearing ghosts 
were known as doroi, 'the untimely,' that is, those who 
had met untimely deaths; biothdnatoi, those who had 
met violent deaths; and dtaphoi, 'the unburied.' In the 
eleventh book of the Odyssey all the ghosts who appear 
to Odysseus have met untimely or unhappy ends. 

"Souls of the dead from Erebus — young wives 
And maids unwedded, men worn out with years 
And toil, and virgins of a tender age 
In their new grief, and many a warrior slain 
In battle, mangled by the spear, and clad 
In bloody armour, who about the trench 
Flitted on every side, now here, now there, 
With gibbering cries, and I grew pale with fear." 

46 E. Thurston, Castes and Tribes of Southern India, vi. p. 230. 
* T Yasna, ix. 15; Yasht, vi. 3f. 



in SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 87 

These ghosts appeared in the same forms in which 
Odysseus had known them on earth, and spoke with 
audible voices, but they were inaccessible to the sense of 
touch. 

The Erinyes were originally the souls of the murdered 
who demanded vengeance. Althaea summons the Erinyes 
out of Hades to avenge the death of her brothers. 48 In 
iEschylus 49 we read: "GEdipus' holy shade, black 
Erinys, verily mighty art thou." Io, maddened by the 
apparition of earth-born Argus, cries : 

"O horror! he is coming, coming nigh, 
Dead, with his wandering eye. 
Uprising from the dead, 
He drives me famished 
Along the shingled main." 50 

In the Eumenides } 46ft., the priestess describes these 
spectres of the slain that she has seen in the temple : — 

"Fronting the man I saw a wondrous band 
Of women, sleeping on the seats. But no! 
No women these, but Gorgons — yet methinks 
I may not liken them to Gorgon-shapes. 
Once on a time I saw those pictured things 
That snatch at Phineus' feast, but these, but these 
Are wingless — black, foul utterly. They snore, 
Breathing out noisome breath. From out their eyes 
They ooze a loathy rheum." 51 

A more horrible conception of the ghosts of the mur- 
dered, worse than Gorgons, and worse than Harpies, 
which are themselves spirits of the dead, could hardly be 
imagined. 

There are many allusions in Greek literature to ap- 
pearances of ghosts, particularly in connection with 

48 Iliad, ix. 571ff. 

48 Seven against Thebes, 988. 

•° Prometheus Bound, 566ff. 

81 See J. E. Harrison, Prolegomena, pp. 213-232. 



88 SPIRITISM m 

necromancy, or the calling up of the dead. 52 Lucian in 
his Philopseudes, or 'Liar,' gives a rich collection of 
stories of this sort. It is satire, of course, still it reflects 
popular beliefs on the subject. Pliny 53 tells perhaps the 
best Greek ghost-story that has come down to us. In 
Athens there was a haunted house, where rattling of 
chains was heard, and where the ghost of an old man 
appeared with chains on his wrists which he kept shaking. 
People who tried to live in the house died from fright, 
and nobody was willing to hire the place. Finally the 
philosopher Athenodorus, attracted by the cheapness of 
the rent, and by a love of psychical research, took the 
place and settled down in his study to await develop- 
ments. He heard the rattling of the chains, and finally 
the ghost appeared to him and beckoned him to follow. 
The philosopher, with extraordinary presence of mind 
under the circumstances, followed the phantom into the 
yard where it suddenly vanished. He made a heap of 
leaves at the spot where it had disappeared, and the 
next day reported the matter to the magistrates and had 
the place dug up. A skeleton was discovered bound in 
chains; and when this had been freed and properly 
buried, the ghost no more appeared in the house. 

Roman ideas about ghosts were similar to those of 
the Greeks. Souls of the unhappy dead were apt to 
appear to the living. After the murder of the mad 
Emperor Gaius his corpse was only half-burned and half- 
buried. The Lamian villa where the tragedy had oc- 
curred was haunted by his ghost, and every night there 
were dreadful sights and sounds until the house was 
burned. 54 Nero, after the assassination of his mother 
Agrippina, could not sleep because of her phantom that 
appeared to him. From the surrounding hills the sound 
of a trumpet was heard and wailings from Agrippina's 

52 See p. 151. 

88 Epistles, vii. 27. 

M Suetonius, Gaius, 59. 



in SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 89 

grave. 55 On the night when Galba was assassinated, 
Otho started up from his bed with groans, and was found 
lying in a swoon on the ground. 56 Ovid 57 threatens to 
haunt his enemy after death: "However death may 
come to me, I will strive to break from the borders of 
the river of Hades, and in vengeance I will lay my cold 
hands on your brow. Waking, you shall look upon me ; 
in the still shadow of night I will seem to come and 
shatter your slumbers. Whatever you do, I will fly 
before you in your sight. I will raise my lament. You 
shall not find rest anywhere. Knotted lashes shall sound 
in your ears. Torches entwined with snakes shall always 
smoke before your guilty countenance. You shall be 
driven on by the furies in life and in death, for life is 
too short for your chastisement." 

Roman ghosts appeared mostly at night. Propertius 
represents them as saying: "At night we wander far 
and wide, for night frees the shades from their prison. 
Our laws compel us to return to the Lake of Forgetful- 
ness by daybreak." They also appeared occasionally at 
noon-time when the intense summer heat drove men off 
of the streets to take their siestas in their homes. Thus 
the phantom of a woman appeared at noon in an African 
town to Curtius Rufus informing him that he should 
return to the province as pro-consul. 58 It was dangerous 
to see ghosts, as this often foreboded death, but fortu- 
nately the spirits avoided being seen by men quite as 
much as men avoided looking upon them. 

Among the Celts the realistic conception of a bodily 
existence in the other world made it easy to believe that 
the dead could manifest themselves to the living. Such 
apparitions could hardly be called ghosts since they were 
clothed in flesh and blood and looked the same as when 

65 Tacitus, Annals, xiv. 10. 
88 Suetonius, Otho, 7. 
"Ibis, I51ff. 
88 Tacitus, Annals, xi. 21. 



9 o SPIRITISM m 

they were alive on earth. 59 Celtic literature is full of 
accounts of manifestations in which the living are un- 
conscious that they are talking with the dead. The 
Classical writers mention a class of Celtic spirits of the 
dead called dusii (cf. Gr. &e6s) who were so corporeal 
that they entered into marital relations with men and 
women as incubi and succubi. Q0 

Teutonic conceptions of ghosts are so familiar to us 
from our English folk-lore that they require no special 
elaboration in this connection. 

8. Spirits of the Dead Possess Superhuman Knowl- 
edge. — They are far wiser than mortals. They know 
what is taking place on earth among their relatives. 
They know when offerings are prepared for them and 
when they are invoked to be present. They know the 
prayers that are addressed to them by their descendants. 
They also know the future. In Homer all the ghosts 
who appear to the living deliver prophetic oracles. The 
entire eleventh book of the Odyssey is devoted to the 
predictions which the shades make to Odysseus. In all 
parts of the Indo-European world the dead exercise the 
same oracular functions. 

9. Spirits of the Dead Are Able to Bless the Living. 
— Although the dead are dangerous when angry, yet 
when properly appeased, they reward their filial descend- 
ants. The Vedas frequently speak of the "fathers" as 
blessing their posterity. In connection with the offering 
of food to ancestors in India the sacrificer prays: 
"Honour, pitaras, for your comfort, honour for your 
living sap, honour for your living power, honour for your 
gentleness, honour for your life, honour for your vigour, 
Svahd to you, honour to you, pitaras, honour! This 
water is yours, pitaras, this is our and your life-bringing 
element; may we who are here be quickened." The 
husband then gives the sacrificial cake to his wife to 

68 See pp. 4f., 32f. 

80 Augustine, de Civ. Dei, xv, 23; Isidore Lib. Etymol. viii., 11, 103. 



in SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 91 

eat, saying, "Give me a male child, pit or as" and the wife 
replies, "Insert fruit in me, pitdras, a lotus-wreathed boy, 
that he may be uninjured." 

In Persia the fravashis took such a keen interest in 
the welfare of their descendants that in time of drought 
they hurried to the heavenly lake Vourukasha and fought 
with one another for water, "each for his own family, 
his own village, his own tribe, his own country." 61 

In Greece the bride before leaving her home sacri- 
ficed to her ancestors in order to secure fertility and a 
blessing upon her home. 62 

/. Powers Lost by the Dead. — Notwithstanding the 
resemblance of the other world to the present world, 
and notwithstanding the superhuman powers that were 
gained through death which raised one to the rank of 
a god, the future life was regarded by most of the Indo- 
Europeans as a dim, shadowy existence that was most 
undesirable. The loss of the body involved the loss 
of all the active powers and all the pleasures that made 
life worth living. The disembodied soul was only a 
feeble reflection of its former self. In all the Indo- 
European languages the soul is described as breath, 
wind, vapour, smoke, shadow. These names emphasize 
its unsubstantial character. Accordingly, with the loss 
of the body one lost all that made existence worth while. 
One did not enter upon immortality in any true sense 
of the word, but only upon a ghost-existence, which is a 
very different matter. In Homer the psuche, or 'breath,' 
is only an eidolon, or 'image,' of its former self. It is 
a 'smoke,' 63 or a 'shadow,' 64 and it passes like air 
through the hands of those who try to seize it. For this 
reason the dead are unhappy, and regard the humblest 
lot on earth as superior to the highest rank among the 

81 Avesta, Yasha, xiii, 64ff.' 

82 See below, p. 1371 
88 Iliad, xxiii. 100. 

"Odyssey, x. 495; xi. 207; see p. 7. 



92 SPIRITISM m 

shades. 65 Greek and Latin grave-inscriptions take the 
same pessimistic attitude toward the future life; and 
however much higher conceptions may have prevailed 
in mystic brotherhoods and philosophic circles, these did 
not affect the primitive beliefs of the multitude. 

Among the Celts alone a more cheerful conception 
prevailed. Like the ancient Egyptians, they seem to have 
conceived of the dead as re-animating their bodies in 
the other life, and therefore as not leading a ghost- 
existence. 66 Lucan, 67 says of the Druids: "From you 
we learn that the bourne of man's existence is not the 
silent halls of Erebus; in another world the spirit ani- 
mates the members. Death, if your lore be true, is but 
the centre of a long life." For this reason, he adds, the 
Celtic warriors had no fear of death. Valerius Maxi- 
mus 68 records that they lent money on the promise to 
pay it back in the next world. This certainly implies a 
vivid conception of its reality and of its physical char- 
acter. In Celtic folk-lore the dead do not appear as 
ghosts but as living men of flesh and blood. 69 In the 
Welsh tale of Pwyll mentioned later, Arawn, King of 
Hades, is able to take Pwyll's place for a year among 
the living. Marriages of the living with the dead are a 
frequent theme of Celtic legends. The Celtic other 
world was a place of eating, drinking, fighting, and mak- 
ing love, like the present world at its best, so that it is 
not surprising that suicide was frequent in order to enter 
more speedily into its joys. Diodorus Siculus 70 records 
that letters were thrown upon funeral pyres in the belief 
that thus they were carried to departed friends. 

g. The Abode of the Dead. — Indo-European concep- 
tions of the dwelling-place of departed spirits corres- 

65 See p. 8f. 

66 See p. 163. 

67 Pharsalia, i. 455ff. 
88 II. 6, 10. 

69 See p. 106. 

70 V. 28. 



in SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 93 

pond to the three methods of disposal of the dead that 
were practised by them, namely, exposure, burial and 
cremation. 

1. Spirits Roam Without Any Fixed Habitation. — 
This corresponds to the primitive custom of exposure of 
corpses." When the flesh was devoured by beasts and 
birds and the bones were scattered, the body no longer 
served as a seat of the soul's activity. The discarnate 
spirit had no abode to which it could return, but "passed 
through waterless places, seeking rest and finding 
none." 71 Like the living, the primitive Aryan ghosts 
were nomads. This conception lasted among all the 
Indo-Europeans in the belief that the unburied or un- 
cremated dead could not rest but haunted the living. In 
India and in Persia spirits for whom the last rites had 
not been performed roamed about and formed a dan- 
gerous class of evil demons. In the Iliad, 72 the ghost of 
the unburied Patroclus says to Achilles: 

"Thou dost neglect me dead. O, bury me 
Quickly, and give me entrance through the gates 
Of Hades; for the souls, the forms of those 
Who live no more, repulse me, suffering not 
That I should join their company beyond 
The river, and I now must wander round 
The spacious portals of the House of Death. 
Give me thy hand, I pray; for never more 
Shall I return to earth when once the fire 
Shall have consumed me." 

Smiliar conceptions meet us in Euripides, 73 Sopho- 
cles, 74 and iEschylus. 75 In Homer burial is refused to 
fallen enemies, but in later times it was considered a 
sacred duty to perform the last rites even for foes. The 
laws of Solon enacted that, if a father had hired his 

"Matt. 12:43; Luke 11:24. 

72 Iliad, xxiii. 7lff., Bryant's translation. 

78 Hecuba, 31-50; Troades, 1081. 

74 Antigone, 1070. 

75 Eumenides, 269S. 



94 SPIRITISM m 

son out for vicious purposes, the son was absolved from 
the obligation to feed and shelter him, yet was required 
to perform the funeral rites for him. If a man had no 
relatives, or if they failed to perform their duty, the 
head of his deme attended to the interment. Only ex- 
ceptional sinners, such as traitors, temple-robbers, and 
suicides, were refused burial. 

Similar ideas existed at Rome. The shades of those 
who had been drowned, or carried off by beasts, or who 
had not received proper burial or cremation, wandered 
about without fixed abode and were a menace to the 
living. Tertullian 76 says: "It was believed that the 
unburied did not descend to the world below before they 
had received their due." Consequently, it was an im- 
perative duty of relatives to care for their dead; and if 
they failed, the state assumed the responsibility. As 
Quintilian remarks: 77 "Even upon unknown dead we 
heap earth, and no one is ever in too great a hurry to 
honour an unburied body by putting earth, be it ever so 
little, upon it." Burial was refused only to exceptional 
criminals, to suicides, and to those who had been struck 
by lightning. 

Among the pagan Slavs it was believed that souls of 
the unburied wandered in forests, but that souls of the 
buried travelled by the beaten road to the realm of the 
dead. 

2. Spirits Occupy the Bodies of Animals. — Closely 
connected with exposure of the dead is the idea that their 
spirits enter into the bodies of various animals. When 
the dead were devoured by beasts and by birds, it was 
natural to think that their souls might inhabit these 
creatures; thus, alongside of the idea that ghosts of the 
unburied roam the earth, we find at an early date the 
conception of re-incarnation in lower forms of life. The 
most widely spread conception among the Indo-Euro- 

78 De Anima, 56. 

" Declamationes, v. 6. 



in SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 95 

peans was that souls entered into birds. This seems to 
be connected with the devouring of corpses by vultures. 
In early Greek art the soul is depicted as a human-headed 
bird, like the ba in Egyptian art. 78 This is evidently a 
conventionalised form that has grown out of an earlier 
representation of a simple bird. The human-headed 
birds lingered in art as Harpies, Sirens and Erinyes, 
whose functions show that they were developed out of 
spirits of the dead; but the anthropomorphic tendency 
of later Greek art caused spirits in general to be repre- 
sented as winged human figures. 79 

In Italy the belief appears in bird-omens and augury. 
In Plautus 80 a slave rejoices when he sees a woodpecker 
and a crow on his left, and a raven and a screech owl on 
his right. When the woodpecker begins to drill, he takes 
this as a sign of a beating that is in store for him. When 
the raven is seen on the left, and when it taps the earth 
once with its claws, it makes the heart of the spectator 
leap within his breast. Bird-divination was a function 
of the state, and the art was in the hands of augurs who 
belonged to the patrician order. Birds were divided 
into the classes of the 'singers,' oscines, which included 
the owl, the crow, and the raven; and the 'flyers,' 
prapetes, which included the larger birds of prey. Aus- 
pices were drawn from the number and the positions 
in which these birds appeared and from their cries. As 
a rule it was favourable to have a bird appear on the left 
of the observer. Birds of prey were considered most 
important, as was natural, considering their primitive 
connection with the dead. 81 

In Celtic folk-lore spirits of the dead are frequently 
represented as birds. Thus in the Voyage of Maelduin, 
an Irish monkish tale, the terrestrial paradise is described 

78 See p. 155. 

79 The most elaborate discussion of this subject is that of G. Weicker, Der 
Seelenvogel in der alten Litteratur und Kunst, 1907. 

•• Asinaria, ii. sc. 1. 

"For similar Greek ideas see Iliad, xii. 200ff.; x. 274ff. 



96 SPIRITISM m 

as a place where the first forefather lives, surrounded by 
the souls of his descendants who have the form of song- 
birds. In the legend of Saint Maelsuthain his pupils 
appeared to him after death as birds. In Cornwall King 
Arthur is thought to live in the form of a raven, and in 
Wales the souls of the wicked become ravens. In 
Brittany souls of unbaptised infants flit about as birds, 
and in all Celtic countries the souls of drowned sailors 
or fishermen become sea-gulls. By an association of 
ideas butterflies, moths, and bats are also regarded as 
spirits of the dead. 82 

Next to birds snakes are most frequently associated 
with spirits of the dead in Indo-European religions. 
The serpent-cult of modern India is distinctly connected 
with ancestor-worship. On Greek tombs snakes are con- 
stantly represented as the embodiment of the spirit of 
the dead. In the so-called "hero reliefs" a large bearded 
serpent appears behind the seated hero. In "banquet 
reliefs" a serpent appears twisted about a tree, or drinks 
from a cup in the hero's hand. In vase pictures serpents 
are often depicted at the foot of burial mounds. The 
meaning of these representations is clear from a pas- 
sage in Plutarch 83 who states that when Cleomenes, King 
of Sparta, had been executed by Ptolemy, King of Egypt, 
and impaled in public, "a huge snake wound about the 
head and hid the face so that no bird of prey should light 
on it. Thereupon a superstitious fear fell upon the 
King, and such a dread that it started the women on 
purification ceremonies." Cecrops, the oldest Athenian 
hero, was worshipped originally as a snake, subsequently 
as a half-human, half-serpentine being. Erechtheus, his 
son, was also a snake. Herodotus, viii. 41, describing 
the Persian invasion, says: "The Athenians say that 
they have in their acropolis a huge serpent, which lives 
in the temple, and is the guardian of the whole place. 

82 See Macculloch, o. c, pp. 360; Henderson, o. c, pp. 76S. 
88 Life of Cleomenes, xxxix. 



in SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 97 

Nor do they only say this, but, as if the serpent really 
dwelt there, every month they lay out its food, which 
consists of a honey-cake. Up to this time the honey-cake 
had always been consumed; but now it remained un- 
touched. So the priestess told the people what had 
happened; whereupon they left Athens the more readily, 
since they believed that the goddess had already aban- 
doned the citadel." In like manner the hero Trophonius 
dwelt as a snake in a cave at Lebadea, and Asklepeios 
also was originally a snake, and later was represented 
with a snake twining about his staff. 84 

In Italy serpents were regarded as the embodiments 
of the spirits of ancestors and as the guardian-heroes of 
places. Pliny 85 says that snakes were protected and fed 
in Roman houses. They became so numerous that they 
would have become an unbearable nuisance, but for the 
fires which frequently consumed parts of the city. On 
tomb-reliefs snakes are represented, as in Greece, as 
embodiments of the dead. A fresco in Herculaneum 
represents a snake twisted around an altar and eating 
cakes from the top. The accompanying inscription 
reads, genius huius loci montis. In the JEneid, v. 84ft., t/ 
Vergil tells how iEneas, having arrived in Sicily, prepared 
to celebrate the anniversary of his father's death with 
sacrifices and games. A magnificent serpent appeared 
which tasted of the sacrificial viands and silently disap- 
peared beneath a mound. iEneas is "uncertain whether 
to think it the genius of the place or the familiar spirit 
of his father." 86 

The cult of ancestors under the form of serpents 
among the pagan Lithuanians is well attested. Menecius, 
the authority on these matters, says: "Moreover the 
Lithuanians and the Samagitae keep snakes in their 

8 *See Rohde, Psyche* pp. 120, 133, 136, 142, 196, 242, 244; J. E. Harrison, 
Themis, chap, viii; Lippert, Die Religionen der europaischen Kulturvolker, p. 42ff. 

86 Nat. Hist, xxix. 72. 

88 See W. Wissowa, Religion und Cultus der Romer, p. 155; F. Granger, The 
Worship of the Romans, pp. 56-59. 



98 SPIRITISM in 

houses under the hearth, or in a corner of the oven 
where a table stands. Reverencing these as manifesta- 
tions of spirits, they call them forth at a certain time 
of the year with prayers to the sacrificial table. They 
come forth through a hole, and climbing up by a cloth, 
they lie on the table; where, having tasted the dishes 
one by one, they descend and hide themselves in their 
caves. When the snakes have gone, the men eat with joy 
all the dishes that they have tasted, and hope that in 
that year all sorts of good things will happen to them. 
If, however, the snakes do not come forth at their 
prayers to partake of the sacrifices, or do not taste 
of the dishes that are placed on the table, they believe 
that they will meet with great misfortune in the ensuing 
year." Lascowski (Lasicius) also records: u They 
cherish also as household gods certain fat snakes of a 
black colour which they call Giuoitos (i.e., Lith. gyvate, 
'serpents'). iEneas Sylvius, Pope Pius II (1458-64), 
says of the Lithuanians: "They used to reverence 
snakes: each head of a family had a snake in the corner 
of his house to which he offered food and sacrifice." 87 

Other animals, such as dogs, wolves, hares, etc., appear 
as the embodiments of spirits in Indo-European folk-lore, 
but much less frequently and universally than birds and 
serpents. 

Out of this belief in re-incarnation of souls in animal 
forms there arose in a few parts of the Indo-European 
world the doctrine of metempsychosis, or transmigration. 
This is not yet found in the Vedas, but in the Ramayana 
it is stated that the wicked are punished by being reborn 
in lower stages of existence. In later Brahmanism and 
in Buddhism the doctrine is fully developed that men 
are reborn in accordance with the law of Karma, or retri- 
bution for the deeds done in a previous existence. All 
the philosophic systems and Buddhism are efforts to free 
the soul from this dread necessity of rebirth through 

• T See F. Solmsen, in Usener, Gotternamen, p. 91, s.v. Gyvati. 



in SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 99 

absorption of the individual soul into the universal as 
"the dew-drop slides into the shining sea." 

A similar movement of Greek thought begins with 
Orphism, a development of Thracian Dionysiac cults, 
which first appears in the sixth century B.C. It is known 
to us chiefly from eight inscribed gold tablets, six of 
which were found near Sybaris, one at Rome, and one in 
Crete, which were deposited in the tombs of members 
of Orphic brotherhoods; 88 also from the later descrip- 
tions of Empedocles and Plato. From these sources we 
learn that the fundamental doctrine of Orphism was the 
heavenly origin of the soul. Each individual soul once 
dwelt in the celestial regions and partook of the divine 
nature. Because of sin in this first existence it is con- 
demned to mortal life on earth. The body is the 
"prison," or even the "grave" of the soul, according to 
Orphic authorities. For ten thousand years it is con- 
demned to the "circle" or "wheel of generation." That 
is, it must be born and reborn in lower or higher forms 
of life according as it has done ill or well in its previous 
existence. One Orphic poet says: "Hitherto I have 
been a boy, a girl, a bush, a bird, and a scaly fish in the 
sea." 89 The aim of Orphism is redemption from the 
"circle of necessity," that is, the compulsion to be reborn. 
This is accomplished by "purity" both moral and cere- 
monial. Sin must be avoided, and at the same time one 
must abstain from animal food, and must practise a 
large number of cleansing rites. Adherence to this rule 
of life secures rebirth in continually higher forms, until 
at last the soul is ready to leave the "circle of genera- 
tion" and return to the heavenly abode from which it 
fell. During the intervals between the various rebirths 
the soul is confined in Hades. Here the good are happy, 
while the wicked are punished with all sorts of tortures. 

Orphism bears so many points of resemblance to 

88 See J. E. Harrison, Prolegomena, pp. 573-600; 660-674. 
88 Abel, Orphica, 1885, fr. 117. 



ioo SPIRITISM m 

Buddhism in its doctrines of metempsychosis, asceticism, 
abstinence from animal food, purgatory, and redemption, 
that it seems highly probable that it drew its original 
inspiration from Indian sources; but it has received a 
characteristically Greek development, and its belief in 
individual immortality is very different from the Buddhis- 
tic Nirvana. The one is the product of Greek individual- 
ism and optimism; the other, of Indian pantheism and 
pessimism. 

A similar phenomenon to Orphism is seen in the 
Eleusinian mysteries that were celebrated at Eleusis near 
Athens. Here, by means of purificatory rites, initiation, 
and the drinking of some sort of sacramental cup, the 
recipients were made partakers of the very nature of 
the goddess, so that they were privileged to see and 
hear sacred mysteries of the other world, and were 
assured deliverance from rebirth and a happy immor- 
tality. The antiquity of these rites is proved by the 
"Homeric" Hymn to Demeter, composed as early as 
600 B.C., in which the whole Greek world is invited to 
come to Eleusis for initiation. The promise of immor- 
tality which these ceremonies gave attracted all the 
Greeks who could afford it, and subsequently many of 
the Romans, to accept the invitation of the poet. 

Pythagoras (ca. 582-500 B.C.) held the Orphic doc- 
trines of the divine origin of the soul, of its incarnation 
through sin, of transmigration, ultimate redemption 
from the necessity of rebirth, and reunion with the divine. 
He founded a brotherhood with a rigid "way of life" 
which spread into all parts of the Greek world and 
exerted a powerful influence upon Greek thought. 

Heraclitus (ca. 535-475 B.C.) seems also to have 
come under Orphic influence, if we may judge from a 
fragment 90 which says, "The living and the dead, the 
waking and the sleeping, the young and the old are the 
same; for the latter when they have changed are the 

90 Bywater, Heraclite Ephesii Reliquice, LXXVIII. 



in SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 101 

former, and the former when they have changed are the 
latter." 

iEschylus (525-456 B.C.) teaches in the main the 
Homeric doctrine of Hades, but with the important 
difference that for him there are rewards and punish- 
ments in Hades. In this respect apparently he shows 
Orphic influence. 91 

Pindar (522-443 B.C.) adopts all the main features 
of the Orphic theology. He teaches re-incarnation, ret- 
ribution in Hades, and ultimate deliverance from the 
"wheel of rebirth." 

Empedocles (ca. 490-430 B.C.) also accepted the 
Orphic beliefs. In one of his fragments he teaches that 
in the last rebirth before attaining its redemption the 
soul becomes a prophet, poet, physician, ruler, or some 
other benefactor of mankind. Then at death it becomes 
a god, and rises to the fellowship of the gods. 

Sophocles (495-406 B.C.) and Euripedes (480-406 
B.C.) take a sceptical attitude toward all theories of 
immortality; when they speak of death, they use or- 
dinarily the old Homeric language; but Socrates (470- 
399 B.C.) and his disciple Plato (429-347 B.C.) carry 
the doctrine of the future life to the highest development 
attained in the Classical world. They teach that the soul 
is an eternal, uncreated substance. In consequence of a 
fall from the life of pure reason in an earlier state of 
existence, it has been confined in the body as a prison, 
where it is subjected to the temptations of the flesh. If 
it resists these, it passes at death to the fellowship of 
the gods. If it succumbs, it is born again upon earth. 
If after repeated rebirths it does not reform, it is cast 
into Tartarus. 

Classical writers assert also that the doctrine of met- 
empsychosis existed among the Celts. Caesar 92 states : 
"The Druids in particular wish to impress this on them 

91 See ^Eschylus, Eumenides, 269ff. ; cf. Supplices, 226ff. ; 416-435. 
93 De Bello Gallico, vi. 14. 



102 SPIRITISM m 

that souls do not perish, but pass from one to another 
(ab aliis . . . ad alios) after death, and by this 
chiefly they think to incite men to valour, the fear of 
death being overlooked." Diodorus Siculus 93 says: 
"Among them the doctrine of Pythagoras prevailed that 
the souls of men were immortal, and after completing 
their term of existence, they live again, the soul passing 
into another body." Valerius Maximus 94 adds: "They 
would fain make us believe that the souls of men are 
immortal. I would be tempted to call these breeches- 
wearing folk fools, if their doctrine were not the same 
as that of the mantle-clad Pythagoras." Similarly 
Lucan. 95 All these statements probably go back to one 
original, and it is doubtful whether the authority that 
they followed was correct. So far as native sources in- 
dicate, the Celts believed that spirits entered into the 
bodies of animals, but had no developed doctrine of the 
transmigration of souls such as Pythagoras taught. Some 
historian has been misled by a superficial resemblance of 
the far more primitive Celtic beliefs to the ideas of 
Greek philosophy. 

3. Spirits of the Dead Dwell in Graves. — Out of the 
second main method of disposing of the dead among the 
Aryans, namely burial, arose the widespread idea that 
souls haunted the places where their bodies were buried. 
According to this conception, the ghosts were no longer 
nomadic, like the earliest Aryans, but had become seden- 
tary, like the later Aryans. 

Among the Greeks the members of a family were 
buried together outside the city walls in order that they 
might be near to one another and to their living rela- 
tives. In earliest times there are traces also of burial 
within houses. Innumerable graves of heroes were the 
seats of cults in all parts of Greece. At graves periodic 

18 V. 28. i 

"II. 6, 10. 
"Pharsalia, L 454-458. 



in SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 103 

offerings were made to the shades. Over the royal 
graves in the citadel at Mycenae an altar was placed for 
the reception of sacrifices. The bones of heroes received 
the greatest reverence, and were frequently transported 
from one place to another in order to secure the pres- 
ence of their owner. In 476 B.C. the Athenians brought 
the reputed bones of Theseus from Scyrus and deposited 
them in the Theseum at Athens. From that time on- 
ward the spirit of Theseus dwelt in the Theseum. Sim- 
ilarly in 437 B.C. the Athenians under Hagnon brought 
the bones of Rhesus from the Troad to Amphipolis. 96 

Among the Romans identical beliefs prevailed. In the 
JEnead? 1 iEneas at the grave of Polydorus says: "We 
lay the spirit in the grave"; and Horace 98 says to Tor- 
quatus : "We, when we have descended whither righteous 
iEneas, whither Tullus and Ancus have gone, are but 
dust and shadow." Gifts were placed upon the graves, 
and the bones of a victorious general were scattered in 
the city in order to secure the presence and aid of his 
spirit. The skull was regarded as particularly the 
seat of the spirit, hence apparently in earliest times 
it was preserved in the home as a means of com- 
municating with an ancestor. This is the origin of the 
os resectum, or bone cut off before cremation. Originally 
the head was removed for preservation, later a finger, or 
some other part of the body was substituted. The wax 
masks of ancestors preserved in the atrium of Roman 
nobles were probably conventional substitutes for the 
primitive skull." 

Among the Celts also spirits of the dead were thought 
to live in the grave and to issue from it as ghosts. Hence 
offerings of food were placed on tombs, and national 
assemblies were held at them. The tomb of King Cottius 
in the Alps was holy, Irish kings were crowned at an- 

"Rohde, Psyche* p. 161. 

87 III. 67. 

88 Odes, IV. vii. IS. 

89 Granger, Worship of the Romans, pp. 53ff. 



io 4 SPIRITISM in 

cestral tumuli, and Irish gods were frequently associated 
with burial barrows. Tertullian 10 ° narrates that the 
Celts went by night to the tombs of great men to obtain 
oracles, so much did they believe that they were still 
living there. In many parts of the Celtic world the open- 
ings that are left into cairns or barrows are intended 
to give the spirit means of egress and ingress. In Ireland 
it is still believed that the spirit of the one last buried 
has to watch in the graveyard until another is placed 
there. 101 In the churches of Brittany "at the east end 
are the heavy, brightly-painted images; in other parts 
of the church and in the porch, set up on shelves, each 
in a small black box pierced and surmounted by the cross, 
are the skulls of those who have worshipped there, taken 
out of their graves when their flesh has perished, and 
placed on high with their names — Cy est le Chef de N. — 
in the sight of their children when they come to pray. 
They are churches of the dead as well as of the liv- 
ing." 102 

Identical conceptions are found among the Slavs and 
the Teutons. In one Russian dialect the cemetery is 
called roditelhkoje mesto, i.e., "place of the ancestors," 
and in Norse the family burial-mound is known as atthau- 
gar, "hill of the tribe." In all Teutonic folk-lore ghosts 
are associated with graves. In this respect the belief of 
the Indo-Europeans was the same as that of all other 
primitive races. 

4. Spirits of the Dead Dwell in an Underworld. — 
Out of the individual graves some of the Indo-Europeans 
developed the idea of a Nether World that was a sort of 
generalised concept of the grave. The same process is 
seen in the Egyptian Dewat and the Semitic Sheol and is 
found also among African and American tribes. 103 The 
names for the realm of the dead differ in the various 

100 De Anima, 21. 

101 Lady Wilde, Ancient Legends of Ireland, pp. 82f. 

102 Granger, o. c, p. 54. 
108 See pp. 169, 215, 240f. 



in SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 105 

Indo-European languages, so that it is probable that 
the conception was developed by them independently 
after their separation from the parent stem. In India 
and Persia the idea of Hades seems to have existed 
in early times, and in Greece the doctrine of Hades is 
already fully developed in Homer. The name adrjs, 
in Homer aL8r)s, is derived from a-fiba u un-seen," i.e., "the 
invisible world." It is also personified as the ruler of 
the Underworld. Homer speaks frequently of this dark 
abode beneath the earth to which all spirits of the dead 
descend, and from which they come forth to appear to 
the living in dreams and in visions. In the eleventh book 
of the Odyssey he gives an elaborate account of Ulysses* 
visit to this region and his interviews with its inhabitants. 
It is probable that this is not an original part of the Epic; 
nevertheless, it gives an admirable picture of early Greek 
thought on this subject. Ulysses sails westward to the 
extreme limit of the Ocean, the land of the Cimmerians 
who dwell in eternal cloud and darkness. Here he finds 
the entrance to Hades. The souls of the unburied meet 
him first because they are unable to join their relatives 
in the Underworld. Then he encounters the great mul- 
titude of the buried dead, great and small, good and bad, 
who throng the vast cavern. The punishments of Tityos, 
Tantalos, and Sisyphos are late Orphic additions. This 
remained the orthodox Greek conception of the other 
world down to Christian times. 

The corresponding conception among the Romans was 
Orcus, which etymologically is connected with Gothic 
aurahi, 'tomb.' The entrance to Orcus was through a 
mundus, i.e., 'earth,' or 'pit.' In the center of every 
newly founded town such a pit was dug and was covered 
with a stone slab. Through this spirits of the dead de- 
scended into the nether world, and through it they 
ascended. Into it offerings to the dead were cast at 
stated seasons. Macrobius 104 says : "When the mundus 

10 « Saturnalia, I. xvi. 16-18. 



106 SPIRITISM m 

is open, the door of the sad gods of the Underworld is 
open." The oldest mundus at Rome was that on the 
Palatine hill. Other similar trenches that were estab- 
lished later were in the Forum, the Lacus Curtius, and 
the "grave of Tarpeia." All Latin accounts of Orcus 
are so strongly coloured with features derived from the 
Greek conception of Hades that it is impossible to deter- 
mine the primitive Italic idea. Vergil's narrative of 
iEneas's descent to the Lower World in the sixth book 
of the JEneid is an imitation of Ulysses' descent in the 
eleventh book of the Odyssey, nevertheless, it doubtless 
contains many elements of old Latin folk-lore. 

The Classical writers assume that Celtic conceptions 
of the Underworld are identical with their own. Lu- 
can 105 calls it orbis alius; Valerius Maximus 106 speaks 
of the dead Celts as inferi; Pomponius Mela 107 speaks 
of them as going ad manes; and Plutarch 108 represents 
Camma as descending to her dead husband. There are 
numerous tales in Welsh and Irish folk-lore of living 
men who descended to this region and returned, just as 
Odysseus descended to Hades. According to the Welsh 
story, Pwyll, Prince of Dyved, one day met a strange 
huntsman with a pack of curiously spotted hounds. He 
proved to be Arawn, one of the kings of Annwn, or 
Hades. He offered to change places with Pwyll for a 
year in order that Pwyll might smite his rival Havgan, 
another king of Hades, whom he as a spirit could not 
injure. Pwyll accepted the offer, spent a year in Hades, 
conquered Havgan, and returned to his own kingdom, 
which he found had been governed excellently by Arawn 
during his absence, who had exactly simulated his ap- 
pearance, so as to deceive even his wife. 109 

The Slavs called the subterranean abode of the dead 

105 Pharsalia, i. 457 S. 
106 II. vi. 10. 

107 III. 2, 19. 

108 Virt. Mul. 20. 

109 Rhys, Celtic Heathendom, pp. 337-360. 



in SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 107 

Nav, which is connected with Lettic nave, 'dead,' Greek 
nekus, 'dead person,' Gothic nans, 'corpse.' The Polish 
chronicler Dlugosz says that the pagan Slavs call Pluto 
"Nya," and pray him after death to grant them better 
places in Hades. 

The general Teutonic name for the Underworld was 
Hell; Gothic, Halya; Norse, Hel; Anglo-Saxon, Hell; 
Old High German, Hella; German, Holle; which is con- 
nected with Gothic and Old High German helan, Anglo 
Saxon helan, German hehlen, and Old English heal, 'to 
hide.' It had thus exactly the same original meaning as 
Hades, 'the invisible world.' Only in Norse did the 
term come to be used also for the goddess of the Under- 
world. Hell was originally not the place of punishment 
that it has become in Christian theology as a result of its 
use in Biblical versions to translate the Jewish-New 
Testament word Gehenna. It was the underground 
abode of the dead, good and bad alike, like the Greek 
Hades and the Hebrew Sheol. The translation of 
Sheol by Hell in the Old Testament was originally cor- 
rect, but has become misleading for the modern mind 
through the confusion of Gehenna and Sheol. 110 

5. Spirits of the Dead Dwell in Paradise. — If the the- 
ory be correct that cremation was originally performed 
only in the case of kings, chieftains, or heroes, and that 
the purpose was to restore their spirits to the gods from 
whom they had sprung; then there must have been from 
the beginning a House of Lords among the dead. In 
nearly all branches of the Indo-Germanic race traces are 
found of a Paradise to which aristocratic souls go in- 
stead of to the plebeian abode of Hades. The later ten- 
dency everywhere is to democratize this Paradise and to 
extend its privileges to an ever increasing number. This 
development keeps pace with the granting of the priv- 
ilege of cremation to the plebeians. 

In India the Vedas know of the realm of Yama, be- 

110 See pp. 287ff. 



108 SPIRITISM m 

yond the western mountains. Yama, the son of Vivas- 
vant, was the first man (although he had a father), who 
reigned on earth in the Golden Age. "He might have 
lived as immortal, but he chose to die, or rather he in- 
curred the penalty of death, for under this choice a fall 
is disguised. He was the first to traverse the road from 
which there is no return, tracing it for future genera- 
tions. It is there, at the remotest extremities of the 
heavens, the abode of light and of the eternal waters, 
that he reigns henceforth in peace and in union with 
Varuna. There by the sound of his flute, under the 
branches of the mystic tree, he assembles around him the 
dead who have lived nobly. They reach him in a crowd, 
conveyed by Agni, guided by Pushan, and grimly scanned 
as they pass by the two monstrous dogs who are the 
guardians of the road. Clothed in a glorious body, and 
made to drink of the celestial soma, which renders them 
immortal, they enjoy henceforward by his side an end- 
less felicity, seated at the same tables with the gods, gods 
themselves, and adored here below under the name of 
Pitris, or fathers. At their head are, of course, the first 
sacrificers, the minstrels of other days, Atharvan, the 
Angiras, the Kavyas, the Pitris by pre-eminence, equal 
to the greatest of the gods, who by their sacrifice de- 
livered the world from chaos, gave birth to the sun, and 
kindled the stars." 1X1 In the Rig Veda 112 the prayer is 
offered: "Where all pleasures and bliss, where enjoy- 
ment and gratification, where all wishes are attained, 
there let me be immortal." 

In Persia, in the A'vesta, Yama appears as Yima (in 
later Persian legend Jemshid), the son of Vivanhant; and 
his sister Yimi, as Yimek, or Yime. At first he ruled 
over men in a paradise on earth. "There a year is as a 
day, and there are lights created and uncreated. And 

111 Barth, The Religions of India, pp. 22£. 

112 IX. 113, 7ff. 



in SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 109 

once in forty years are born a male and a female to every 
couple; and there men live the happiest life; and there is 
neither cold nor heat nor death." Yima was unfaithful 
to his trust and died, and in the oldest form of the pre- 
Zoroastrian Iranian tradition his paradise became the 
abode of the noble dead. 

The Greeks knew of a similar abode of the distin- 
guished dead which they called Elysium. In the Odyssey 
Proteus, the prophetic sea-god, says to Menelaus : 

11 'Tis not decreed that thou shalt meet thy fate 
And die, most noble Menelaus, where 
The steeds of Argus in her pastures graze. 
The gods will send thee to the Elysian plain, 
And to the end of earth, the dwelling-place 
Of fair-haired Rhadamanthus. There do men 
Lead easiest lives. No snow, no bitter cold, 
No beating rains, are there; the ocean-deeps 
With murmuring breezes from the West refresh 
The dwellers. Thither shalt thou go: for thou 
Art Helen's spouse, and son-in-law of Jove." 113 

The common derivation of 'HAvo-iov, Elysium, from the 
root eleuth, 'come, arrive,' is unsatisfactory. Others 
have suggested that it is connected with Earu (Aalu), 
the Egyptian paradise, and that Rhadamanthus equals 
Ra-Amenti, or Ra (the sun-god) of the Egyptian 
Hades. 114 Both of these etymologies are most unlikely. 
A more probable explanation is that of A. N. Veselov- 
skij, followed by O. Schrader, that elusion is for f elusion, 
and U connected with Lithuanian weles, 'spirits of the 
dead,' and the Lithuanian goddess of the dead Vielona; 
Norse valr, 'slain,' and val-holl, Valhalla, 'hall of the 
slain' ; Anglo-Saxon wal f 'the dead on the battlefield' ; Old 
High German wal, wuol, 'slaughter.' According to this, 
Elysium was identical with Valhalla, and was originally 

118 Odyssey, iv. 560ff., Bryant's translation, iv. 717S. 
"« See p. 170. 



no SPIRITISM m 

the dwelling-place of the souls of heroes who fell in 
battle. Thither also living men might be translated 
without tasting death. 

Pindar 115 (522-443 B.C.) gives a beautiful descrip- 
tion of the joys of Elysium. "Ever through nights, and 
ever through days the same, the good receive an un- 
laborious life beneath the sunshine. They vex not with 
might of hand the earth or the waters of the sea for food 
that satisfieth not, but among the honoured gods, such 
as had pleasure in keeping of oaths enjoy a tearless life; 
but the others have pain too fearful to behold. Howbeit, 
they who thrice on either side of death have stood fast 
and wholly refrained their souls from deeds unjust, 
journey on the road to Zeus to the tower of Cronus, 
where the ocean-breezes blow around the islands of the 
blest, and flowers gleam bright with gold, some on trees 
of glory on the land, while others the water feeds; with 
wreaths thereof they entwine their arms and crown their 
heads." 116 

In Italy there is nothing to correspond to Elysium, 
except in writers who borrow directly from Greek 
sources. Among the Celts, however, the idea is highly 
developed. Welsh legends tell of the land of Avallon 
beyond the western seas whither heroes are transported, 
and where they lead a life of perfect bliss. Tennyson has 
caught the true spirit of the Welsh bards when in the 
Passing of Arthur he describes this land : — 

"But now farewell. I am going a long way 
With these thou seest — if indeed I go 
(For all my mind is clouded with a doubt) — 
To the island-valley of Avilion; 
Where falls not rain, or hail, or any snow, 
Nor ever wind blows loudly; but it lies 
Deep-meadow'd, happy, fair with orchard lawns 
And bowery hollows crown'd with summer sea, 
Where I will heal me of my grievous wound." 

u8 Olympian, ii. 61ff. 

119 Translation of James Adam, in Religious Teachers of Greece, p. 132. 



in SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 1 1 1 

Here Arthur still lives on, destined one day to return 
and deliver his people from the rule of the Saxons. 

The Irish stories of Elysium are of three sorts. In 
one a fairy from this land tempts a mortal to leave this 
world and join her in the Islands of the Blessed. After 
a blissful stay of hundreds of years homesickness leads 
him to return to Erin. He is allowed to go, but is bidden 
not to set foot on the shore. Breaking this command, he 
turns instantly to ashes. In another form of the story 
the hero, like Odysseus, visits the Islands in quest of in- 
formation, or to recover a lost wife. He is ferried over 
in a bronze skiff, the counterpart of Charon's boat over 
the Styx, and of the ferryman in Egyptian mythology. In 
a third type of narrative voyagers to the West accident- 
ally discover the Blessed Isles, and bring back reports of 
what they saw and heard there. 117 

The Teutonic counterpart of these ideas is Valhalla, 
'the Hall of the Slain,' which, as we saw above, is per- 
haps etymologically connected with Elysium. 118 This is 
Gladhsheimr, 'the home of joy.' Its walls and roof are 
built of shields and spears. Before its door a wolf-skin 
hangs, and over it hovers an eagle. Within sits Odhin, 
who welcomes most cordially the one who has slain the 
greatest number of enemies. Thither go the souls of 
those heroes who are able to shout, "Laughing I die," 
escorted by the Valkyries, who there wait upon and serve 
them with beer "immer noch ein's." It is a thoroughly 
Germanic, militaristic, and aristocratic paradise. This 
region also lay beyond the sea, so that in Scandinavia it 
was customary to ship the Viking to it in the bark with 
which in life he had sailed the main. 

6. Spirits of the Dead Dwell in Tartarus. — In ancient 
Indo-European thought only two realms of the dead were 
known, Hades for the commoners, and Elysium for the 
nobles; but subsequently logical consistency created in 

117 See p. 170. 
** See p. 109. 



ii2 SPIRITISM m 

some parts of the Aryan world a place of punishment 
for the conspicuously wicked. The Rig Veda prays al- 
ready: "Indra and Soma, hurl the evil-doer into the 
prison, into fathomless darkness, whence none shall come 
out again ! So shall your stern might constrain them" ; 
i 'Beneath the earth shall all they dwell who by day and 
night contrive deceit against us"; "Those who roam like 
brotherless maidens, who lead an evil life like wives that 
deceive their husbands, who are wicked, faithless, false — 
such have prepared for themselves that deep place." 119 
In later Brahmanism and in Buddhism the doctrine of 
Hell had a great development. 

Zoroastrian dualism also developed a Hell as the 
abode of Ahriman, the Prince of Darkness, and of all 
evil spirits, over against the Heaven of Ahura Mazda 
and the good spirits; and the later parts of the Ayesta 
contain elaborate descriptions of the tortures of this In- 
ferno, but this formed no part of early Iranian belief. 

Homer knows a place called Tartarus, far beneath the 
lowest depths of Hades, to which conspicuous sinners 
are condemned. Thus Zeus says of the god who shall 
presume to break his command : — 

"Back to Olympus, scourged and in disgrace, 
Shall he be brought, or I will seize and hurl 
The offender down to rayless Tartarus, 
Deep, deep in the great gulf below the earth, 
With iron gates and threshold forged of brass, 
As far beneath the shades as earth from heaven." 120 

The closing lines of the eleventh book of the Odyssey 
which describe the tortures of Tityus, Tantalus, and 
Sisyphus are, as remarked above, probably an Orphic 
interpolation. Hesiod, like Homer, knows Elysium for 
a few great heroes of antiquity, Tartarus for a few speci- 
ally heinous sinners, and Hades for the vast majority 

119 Moore, Religions, p. 268. 

120 Iliad, viii. US. 



in SPIRITISM AMONG INDO-EUROPEANS 1 13 

of men. Orphism, probably in dependence upon Ori- 
ental thought, greatly developed the idea of rewards 
and punishments in the other world in the intervals be- 
tween re-incarnations, but the idea of a place of punish- 
ment is not found elsewhere in the Indo-European world, 
and is evidently a relatively late and sporadic develop- 
ment. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE CULT OF THE DEAD AMONG THE INDO-EUROPEANS 

a. Deification of Spirits of the Dead. — Because of 
their superhuman powers the dead were regarded by all 
the Indo-European peoples as belonging to the class of 
gods. They were not confused with the bright powers 
of nature, and there is no evidence that gods were de- 
veloped out of ghosts, nevertheless, spirits of the dead 
formed a distinct class of superhuman beings alongside 
of nature-spirits. In the Vedas the devas, or 'gods,' and 
the pitaras, or 'ancestors,' are carefully distinguished, 
but both are divine, both are invited to the sacrifices, and 
both partake of the offerings. In Greece they are the 
deol irarpyoi, 'the ancestral gods.' In Rome they are the 
di parentes, 'the parental gods,' the di manes, or divi 
manes, 'the good gods.' Among the peasants of White 
Russia they are the svjaty dzjady, 'the sacred grandfath- 
ers.' The sacrifices offered to the dead, which were 
similar to those offered to the gods, prove that they be- 
longed to the same general class of superhuman beings. 

b. The Cult of the Dead. — In the ordinary Aryan 
family individual worship of the dead did not extend be- 
yond three generations of ascendants. The great-grand- 
father, grandfather, and father were the only ancestors 
that one knew, and these alone were honoured by name 
after death. In India "to three ancestors is the water 
offered, to three is the pinda given; the fourth {i.e., the 
worshipping descendant) gives it to the three; the fifth 

(i.e., the great-great-grandson) has nothing to do with 
it." * Similarly the Greek goneis, or 'begetters,' include 

1 Laws of Manu, ix. 186. 

114 



iv INDO-EUROPEAN CULT OF DEAD 115 

the three generations that precede a man. "The beget- 
ters are the mother and father, the grandfather and 
grandmother, and their mother and father, for these are 
the origin of the family." 2 The same holds true of the 
Latin parentes. "In common language parens means 
father and mother, but in legal terminology the grand- 
father and great-grandfather, the grandmother and 
great-grandmother are also called parentes." 3 In sim- 
ilar manner the peasants of Great Russia use the term 
roditeli, 'parents,' and the peasants of White Russia, the 
term dzjady, 'grandfathers,' as including three genera- 
tions of ascendants. 

Beyond these immediate relatives whom one had 
known in life there was no individual cult of the dead. 
Remoter ancestors faded away into the indiscriminate 
mass of discarnate spirits. In India these were known 
by the general term pitaras, or 'forefathers.' They were 
invited collectively to be present at the sacrifices, but 
they were not invoked by name. They were identical 
with the Greek &eol 7rarp§ot, 'the ancestral gods,' and 
with the Roman di manes. Only occasionally was the need 
felt for preserving the memory of a remote ancestor as 
a basis of unity for a tribe or a community; or an in- 
dividual was honoured because of some distinguished 
service that he had rendered in war or in peace. Thus 
arose hero-worship, through which individual forefathers 
escaped the oblivion that befell most of the ancients. 
This is found in India, Persia and among the Celts. It 
had a great development in Greece, but it was unknown 
in Italy before the intrusion of Greek influence. 

The cult of the dead was thus primarily a family af- 
fair (sacra prlvata) as opposed to public worship (sacra 
publico) of the great gods of the State. Only when a 
tribe or community was united in the worship of a com- 
mon ancestor or hero did worship of the dead take on 

2 Isaeus, viii. 32. 

• Featus, s. v. parens. 



n6 SPIRITISM iv 

a national character. It was the duty of the State also 
to provide offerings for spirits of the dead who had left 
no descendants, and to this extent offerings to the di 
manes became sacra publica. 

c. Preparation for Burial. — Among all the Aryans it 
is customary to remove a sick person from his bed and 
place him on the ground when death is expected. In 
India u a dying man, when no hopes of his surviving re- 
main, should be laid upon a bed of kusa grass, either in 
the house or out of it, if he be a Sudra, but in the open 
air if he belong to another tribe." In Europe from Ire- 
land to the Caspian Sea it is usual to lay a dying man 
upon the earth or upon straw. The probable reason for 
this is to prevent pollution of the bed through contact 
with the corpse which is tabu. When the dying man is 
taken out of the house, the purpose is the same, to pro- 
tect it from the infection of uncleanness. A similar mo- 
tive leads to the pouring out of water and other liquids 
that are contained in vessels at the time of a death in 
the house. The liquids can absorb tabu, and thus render 
the vessels unfit for use. 

In many parts of the Indo-European world religious 
rites are performed to assist the soul in leaving the body 
and to facilitate its entrance into the other world. In 
India the dying man is sprinkled with water from the 
Ganges, and his body is smeared with clay from the same 
sacred stream. In Persia the haoma, which is identical 
with the Indian soma, the fermented juice of a sacred 
plant, is given to the dying like the Eucharist in extremis. 

In all parts of Europe the peasants are accustomed 
at the moment of death to open a door or window, or to 
remove a tile from the roof, in order to allow the spirit 
an easy means of escape from the house. The opening 
is left for only a moment, and then is closed to prevent 
the return of the spirit to haunt the house. A still more 
primitive custom, which is attested among the Greeks 
and Romans, is for a near relative to receive the last 



iv INDO-EUROPEAN CULT OF DEAD 117 

breath of the dying into his mouth, and thus become 
possessed by the discarnate spirit. 

The moment that death occurs the relatives break out 
into loud lamentation, and this lasts until the funeral 
ceremonies are complete. The laments comprise calls to 
the dead to return, expostulations with him for forsaking 
those who love him and are dependent upon him, praises 
of his virtues, and promises to avenge him if he has been 
killed in battle or by sorcery. They develop into elabo- 
rate dirges that are handed down traditionally with 
variable collects that are suitable for all sorts of cases. 
They are usually recited or chanted by the women of the 
family; but, as among the Semites, professional mourn- 
ers are often hired for the occasion. When the news of 
Patroclus' death was brought to Achilles, 

"Grasping in both hands 
The ashes of the hearth, he showered them o'er 
His head, and soiled with them his noble face. 
They hung in dark lumps to his comely vest. 
Prone in the dust of earth, at his full length, 
And tearing his disordered hair, he lay. 
Then wailed aloud the maidens whom in war 
He and Patroclus captured. Forth they came, 
And thronging round him smote their breasts and swooned." * 

Similarly at the funeral of Patroclus, 

"When the maid 
Briseis, beautiful as Venus, saw 
Patroclus lying gashed with wounds, she sprang 
And threw herself upon the dead, and tore 
Her bosom, her fair cheeks and delicate neck; 
And thus the graceful maiden weeping said: 
'Patroclus, dear to my unhappy heart! 
I left thee in full life, when from this tent 
They led me; I return and find thee dead, 
O chieftain of the people! Thus it is 
That sorrow upon sorrow is my lot.' " 5 

* Iliad, xviii. 22ff. 

• Iliad, xix. 282ff. 



n8 SPIRITISM iv 

When Priam brings the body of Hector back to Troy, 

"On a fair couch they laid the corse, and placed 
Singers beside it, leaders of the dirge, 
Who sang a sorrowful, lamenting strain, 
And all the women answered it with sobs. 
White-armed Andromache in both her hands 
Took warlike Hector's head, and over it 
Began the lamentation midst them all: 
'Thou hast died young, my husband, leaving me 
In this thy home a widow, and one son, 
An infant yet.' " 6 

So violent were the expressions of grief that early 
lawgivers found it necessary to check them by legislative 
enactment. Solon directed that only the women nearest 
of kin to the deceased should take part in the mourning, 
that they should abstain from violent outbursts and from 
mutilating themselves, and that they should not use set 
forms of dirges. 7 

Precisely similar customs exist among the Russian 
peasantry at the present time. "The room of the peas- 
ant's house in which the dead body lies re-echoes with the 
weeping mourning of relatives, neighbours and acquaint- 
ances. In such a case the women naturally distinguish 
themselves by special ecstasies of feeling, their wailing 
and moaning and their despair at times reaching such 
a pitch that, on looking at them, one involuntarily begins 
to be apprehensive not only for the health, but even for 
the life of some of them." 8 

Among all the Aryans great care was bestowed upon 
the last toilet of the dead. The eyes were closed, and 
weights were placed upon the lids to keep them down. 
The probable reason was the desire to keep the spirit 
which still haunted its body from casting an evil eye upon 
the living. The body was washed, sometimes before 

"Iliad, xxiv. 719ff. 

1 Plutarch, Solon, 21. 

8 P. V. Sejn, Materials for a Knowledge of the Life and Language of the 
Russian Population of the North-West, quoted in Hastings, Enc. Rel. and Eth., 
ii. p. 19 b. 



iv INDO-EUROPEAN CULT OF DEAD 119 

death occurred, so as to avoid the tabu of contact with 
the corpse, and was dressed in its best clothes, sometimes 
in garments specially prepared for the purpose. Sandals 
or shoes were provided for the long journey to the other 
world. In earliest times all the ornaments and jewelry 
that had belonged to the living were put upon him, and 
all his implements, weapons and other personal property 
were laid beside him. In later times motives of economy 
led to the substitution of a single typical ornament and 
the placing of a small coin (Charon's penny) in the 
hand, or in the mouth of the deceased. Originally the 
body was tied up in the so-called "embryonic" position 
with the knees under the chin, as among savage peoples 
in all parts of the world. Some anthropologists explain 
this as a symbolic expression of the thought that death 
is birth into another life; others, as merely an imitation 
of the squatting position in which men rested before 
stools or chairs were invented. In later times the body 
was extended at full length, the position in which men 
were accustomed to sleep upon beds or couches. 

After the corpse was prepared for burial it lay in 
state, usually until the third day after death. Among the 
Greeks it was placed on a bier in the middle of the house 
or tent with its feet toward the door. 9 The same custom 
survives today among the peasants of White Russia. 
"The lying in state takes place in the 'corner' (kutu), 
which in this case does not mean the 'corner' under the 
sacred images, but the bench opposite the entrance door." 
"They lay the dead body on a long broad bench, or on a 
frame specially prepared for it in the middle of the room, 
with the head towards the sacred images." "The White 
Russian peasant wishes to lie on his own 'bench' after his 
death; he has not died 'decently' if he has lain in the 
'corner' in a stranger's house." 10 In some places the 
lying in state was extended over a second night, or even 



• Iliad, xix. 2 12. 

10 P. V. Sejn, in Hastings, Erie. Rel. and Eth., ii. p. 19 a. 



120 SPIRITISM iv 

longer. Thus among the Romans in the case of high 
dignitaries it lasted for seven days. 

The custom was wide-spread of keeping lights burning 
at night during the laying out of the corpse. In India 
this was kept up for ten days after death, and was said 
to be done in order to light the spirit on its journey to 
the other world. This custom survives in all parts of 
modern Europe in the lighting of candles at the head and 
the feet of the dead. 

During the night, or nights, in which the body was 
lying in state it was expected that the relatives and friends 
would sit up with it. This was the "wake" which was 
once universal in Europe, is still familiar in Ireland, and 
has not yet entirely disappeared from England and Scot- 
land. The explanation commonly given of this world- 
wide custom is that the spirit remains with its body until 
burial; and that if one falls asleep, it may enter into 
him, causing sickness or death. Among the Slavic Wends 
of the Spreewald, not only the family, but even the cattle 
are kept awake, and seed-grain is stirred so long as the 
corpse remains in the house. Food and drink were pro- 
vided for the relatives and friends who sat up with the 
dead, and games were played to while away the time. 
Thus "wakes" easily degenerated into drunkenness and 
brawling. Food was also set out for the dead in order 
that he might share in the festivities with the living. 
These food-offerings still survive in many parts of Eu- 
rope. In Russia a piece of bread is laid upon the head 
of the deceased, and a bowl of water is placed beside 
him. In the department of Loir-et-Cher, France, all the 
food that is found in the house is thrown into the room 
in which the dead is laid out. In Greece both bread and 
water are placed upon the bier. In India a dish of rice 
and a bowl of water are set out in the house for ten days 
after death. In many parts of Europe all that survives 
of the feast is a dish of water. 11 

11 E. S. Hartland, in Hastings, Enc. Rel. and Eth., iv. pp. 415, 418. 



iv INDO-EUROPEAN CULT OF DEAD 121 

Coffins were unknown during the Stone Age, and are 
not found in any of the oldest cemeteries of Greece, 
Italy, or of northern Europe. Even in the Mycenaean 
period of the Bronze Age in Greece they did not yet 
appear. In the time of Lycurgus the Spartans were 
wrapped in a purple shroud, and buried upon branches 
of palm and olive. 12 Subsequently in "dipylon-graves" 
of the "geometric" period the dead are buried in huge 
pithoi, or water-jars. Still later coffins and sarcophagi 
were introduced from Egypt and from the Orient. The 
earliest race that has left records in the Campagna in 
Italy enclosed its dead in hollow trunks of trees. The 
same custom appeared in northern Europe during the 
later Bronze Age. It still survives among some Slavonic 
tribes and religious sects. The modern coffin, a box 
constructed out of boards, is of Christian origin, and 
spread throughout Europe with the diffusion of Christi- 
anity. 

The funeral procession was an important feature in 
the obsequies of all the Indo-Europeans. In India "the 
corpse is carried out by^ the southern gate of the town, 
if the deceased were a Sudra; by the western, if he were 
a Brdhmdna ; by the northern, if he belonged to the mili- 
tary class; and by the eastern portal, if he sprang from 
the mercantile tribe. Should the road pass through any 
inhabited place, a circuit must be made to avoid it; and 
when the procession has reached its destination, after 
once halting by the way, the corpse must be gently laid 
with the head towards the south on a bed of kusa, the tips 
of which are pointed southward." 13 In Persia the Avesta 
prescribes that the funeral procession must take place in 
the day time and in dry weather. The body is carried on 
an iron bier (iron has special prophylactic powers against 
tabu) by professional bearers who guard against de- 
filement of themselves or others. In Greece the ekphord, 

12 Rohde, Psyche, 4 i. p. 226, notes 2. 3. 

13 Colebrooke, Asiatic Researches, vii. p. 241. 



122 SPIRITISM IV 

or carrying from the house to the grave or pyre, as de- 
scribed in Homer, was an elaborate ritual. It is often 
depicted upon ancient dipylon-vases. The body is car- 
ried upon an open bier or upon a waggon drawn by two 
horses, while men with drawn swords march at the side, 
and a host of mourning women beating their heads with 
their hands. 14 In Rome the dead man was carried out 
of the house feet first in order that he might not see 
which way he was going and be able to find his way back. 
The masks of the ancestors were brought out, and were 
worn by impersonators, and the procession moved to 
the Forum, where the dead man was made to stand erect 
on the tribunal visible to all. The relatives and citizens 
gathered round him, and the nearest relative pronounced 
a eulogy in his honour, if he were a noble. 15 

d. Disposal of the Dead Among the Indo-Europeans. 
— i. Exposure. — The earliest Indo-European custom 
seems to have been exposure of the dead to be devoured 
by beasts and birds. Herodotus, i. 140, says: "The 
body of a male Persian is never buried, until it has been 
torn either by a dog or bird of prey. That the Magi 
have this custom is beyond a doubt, for they practise it 
without any concealment." Strabo also relates, xi. 11, 3, 
that exposure of the dead was the rule in East Iran. This 
has been usual among nomadic tribes in all parts of the 
world. The practice has survived in orthodox Zoroas- 
trianism, which requires that bodies shall not be buried 
for fear of polluting the earth, or burned for fear of 
polluting the sacred fire. In antiquity the dead were laid 
on dry ground far from the dwellings of men, but subse- 
quently towers called dakhmas were constructed to re- 
ceive them. Such towers were common in Persia before 
the triumph of Islam, and they are still used by the 
Parsees in India. The bodies are laid upon iron bars, 
and the flesh is devoured by vultures. The bones then 

"Rohde, Psyche* i. p. 222, 224, 226. 

" Granger, Worship of the Romans, p. 65. 



iv INDO-EUROPEAN CULT OF DEAD 123 

fall through between the bars into a pit in the centre. 
In India, even in Vedic times, exposure of the dead was 
known, although burial and cremation were more com- 
mon; and in the Ramayana, i. 90, 17, it is said, u When a 
man dies he is buried, or burned, or exposed." Down to 
the present time it is customary to cast bodies into the 
Ganges. These survivals prove that once exposure was 
the habit of the Aryans in India as well as of the closely 
related Iranians. 

The same thing is proved by the connection of dogs 
with the dead in Indo-European mythology and ritual. 
In the Rig Veda mention is made of the dogs of Yama, 
the King of the Underworld. In x. 14 they are called 
"thy guardian dogs, O Yama, the four-eyed ones who 
guard the path, who look on men . . . broad-nosed, 
dark messengers of Yama, who run among the people." 
In vii. $5, 2, they are described as spotted and as barking. 
In the Avestan religion a dog with "four eyes," that is 
with white spots over the eyes, must be brought in to 
gaze upon the corpse when it is laid out; a dog also 
meets the soul on the bridge over which it must pass to the 
other world. Homer (II. viii. 368 ; Od. xi. 623) knows a 
dog that guards the entrance to Hades, but does not name 
him. Hesiod (Theog. 311) calls him Kerberos; and 
says that he greets new-comers with wagging tail, but 
devours those who try to escape from Hades. The name 
Kerberos has been compared with Sanskrit Qarvara, 
'spotted.' Even Hermes, the conductor of souls in Greek 
mythology, seems to be etymologically identical with 
Sarameyas, the son of Sarama, the bitch of the gods in 
the Veda. Hekate, a goddess of Hades, was repre- 
sented originally with a bitch's head, 16 and was attended 
with a pack of hounds. Dogs were also frequently de- 
picted on Greek tombstones. 17 Among the Celts Hades 
was conceived as a monstrous dog that devoured the 

16 Usener, Gotternamen, p. 325. 
"Rohde, Psyche* i. 242; ii. 83 n. 



i2 4 SPIRITISM iv 

dead, and the King of the Underworld hunted with a 
pack of spotted dogs. 18 Among the Slavs, as among the 
Persians, a dog was necessary to catch the soul of the 
dying; or, according to later conceptions, to accompany 
it into the other world. 19 All these widely scattered 
conceptions point to a time when corpses were exposed 
to be devoured by dogs. 

2. Burial. — When the Aryans abandoned the noma- 
dic life and began to become agriculturalists, exposure of 
the dead gave place to burial. Comparative philology 
shows that this custom goes back to a time prior to the 
separation of the branches of this race. 

In India cremation was the rule in Vedic times, but 
burial also was known. In the Rig Veda, x. 15, 14, the 
pitaras are divided into "those who have been burned 
with fire and those who have not been burned with fire." 
Also in the Atharva Veda, xvii. 2, 34, "buried and cre- 
mated" are distinguished among the pitaras. The Ma- 
habharata also knows the burial of adults. In modern 
India infants are buried, and the bones of adults who 
have been cremated are buried for a few days and are 
then thrown into the Ganges — a curious mixture of three 
methods of disposal. 

The Iranian Scythians practised burial only, according 
to Herodotus, iv. 71 ff. In i. 140 he narrates that, while 
the Magi exposed their dead, the rest of the Persians 
buried them in a covering of wax. Archaeology shows 
that the Achasmenian Persian kings were buried in their 
tombs at Persepolis. Apparently the prohibition of 
burial in the Vendidad was not yet known; the Gathas, 
the earliest part of the Avesta, do not contain it. 

In Greek thapto (root taph) means both 'bury' and 
'burn,' and taphos means both 'grave' and 'funeral cere- 
mony' ; but the original meaning is 'bury,' as is shown by 
the Armenian parallel damban, 'grave,' and old High 

18 Hopkins, Religions, p. 132; Macbain, Celtic Religion, p. 138. 

19 Hopkins, Religions, p. 145. 



iv INDO-EUROPEAN CULT OF DEAD 125 

German tunc, 'pit.' In the Mycenaean age in Greece 
burial alone was the custom, but it is possible that the 
Mycenaeans belonged to an earlier pre-Greek race. Un- 
questionably Greek cemeteries, however, disclose a pre- 
ponderance of burials over cremations. Out of nineteen 
"dipylon-graves" of the "geometric" period discovered 
in the earliest Athenian cemetery only one contained an 
urn with ashes and burnt bones. Even when the body 
was cremated, it was usual to bury the bones. Burial, 
accordingly, seems to have been the primitive custom. 

In Latin the original meaning of sepelio is unques- 
tionably not 'burn' but 'bury.' It is connected with Sans- 
krit sapary, 'honour,' and indicates the primitive ritual 
significance of burial. Latin orcus, 'underworld,' is also 
probably the equivalent of Gothic aurahi, 'sepulchre.' 
Excavations in Italy show that the oldest cemeteries con- 
tain burials only, in higher levels urns of ashes begin to 
appear along with burial, and these become more fre- 
quent until Christian times, when burial again becomes 
the only method. Roman tradition recorded a law of 
the regal period which forbade that a pregnant woman 
should be buried until the unborn child had been cut out 
of her. This implies burial as the only method of dis- 
posing of the dead. The Law of the Twelve Tables, x. 
1, reads, "Let no one bury or burn a dead man in the 
city"; and x. 8, 9, "Nor let one bestow gold on one who 
eats with teeth joined with gold, either let one bury or 
burn him with it." Cicero 20 says: "To me that kind of 
burial seems most ancient which Cyrus employed, ac- 
cording to Xenophon. In it the body is returned to 
earth. We are told also that King Numa was buried by 
the same rite in that tomb which is near the Altar of 
the Fountain, and it is well known that the clan of the 
Cornelii have used this mode of sepulture down to our 
time." According to Pliny, 21 "Cremation was not an 

20 De Legibus, ii. 22. 

21 Hist. Nat., vii. 187. 



126 SPIRITISM iv 

ancient custom among the Romans ; they deposited in the 
ground. . . . Nevertheless,, many families have pre- 
served the ancient rites, as, for instance, the Cornelian 
clan, where it is handed down that no one was cremated 
before the Dictator Sulla." Even when cremation became 
common, the ashes were always buried; and the custom 
of the os resectum, in accordance with which a finger, or 
some other part of the body was buried, even when the 
rest was burned, indicates burial as the more primitive 
usage. 

Among the Celts, Teutons, and Slavs archaeology 
shows that the primitive method of disposal of the dead 
was inhumation, and this conclusion is confirmed by com- 
parative philology which shows that the words for 'bury' 
and 'grave' in the languages of these peoples are found 
in all the other Indo-European dialects. Classical writ- 
ers mention only cremation among them, but this is to 
be regarded as an innovation, as in Greece and Italy. 

3. Cremation. — Alongside of burial cremation is 
found at a very early date in all Indo-European lands. 
In the Vedas it is regarded as the usual method, and it 
is the only one for which ritual forms are provided. This 
custom has lasted down to modern times in India. The 
sons of the deceased prepare a pyre in a ceremonially 
clean spot, preferably near a sacred river, and the body 
is laid upon it. The pyre is lighted with "clean" fire, 
and burns until the skull cracks, when it is believed that 
the spirit escapes from the body. If this does not take 
place at the proper time, the skull is fractured with a 
club in order to facilitate the egress of the soul. When 
a person has died away from home, or when for any 
reason the body has disappeared, an effigy is prepared 
which is cremated in the place of the real corpse. 22 

In Persia cremation was common among the non-Zoro- 
astrian tribes, as is evident from the prohibitions of the 
Avesta. Even the name dakhma, which is applied to the 

22 See H. T. Colebrcoke, Asiatic Researches, vii. 1803, pp. 241ff. 



iv INDO-EUROPEAN CULT OF DEAD 127 

towers on which the dead are exposed, means originally 
'burning-place.' 

In Greece cremation was the rule in the Homeric age 
as appears from Iliad, xxiii. H4ff., where the Greeks go 
to the mountains to obtain logs for the funeral-pyre of 
Patroclus. Later Greek writers show that cremation 
was the usual, although by no means the exclusive prac- 
tice, among the upper classes, and this testimony is borne 
out by archaeology. 

In Rome, in cemeteries of the Iron Age, cremations 
and inhumations appear side by side. The Laws of the 
Twelve Tables, as noted above, sanction both burning 
and burial. Latin writers are full of allusions to cre- 
mation. 

Among the Celts cremation is known from the testi- 
mony of Caesar, 23 and Pomponius Mela, 24 and also from 
the discoveries of archaeology. In the Hallstatt ceme- 
tery, which is probably of Celtic origin, four hundred 
and fifty-five ash graves are found with five hundred and 
twenty-five burial graves. 

Cremation among the Slavs of the lower Danube is 
attested by the Arab historians Mas'udi, Ibn Dustah and 
Ibn Fadhlan. The last of these represents a Russian as 
saying: "You Arabs are indeed a stupid people : you take 
him who is the best beloved and the most highly honoured 
among men and cast him into the earth, where the creep- 
ing beasts and worms feed on him. We, on the other 
hand, burn him in an instant, so that he goes directly, 
without delay, into Paradise." 25 Early Church Fathers 
and canons inveigh against this practice. In a treaty 
between the pagan Prussians and Lithuanians and the 
Teutonic Knights from the year 1249 it is stipulated that 
the former shall no longer continue the heathenish cus- 
tom of burning the dead. Peter of Dusburg also gives 

38 De Bello Gallico, vi. 19. 

3 * Chorographia, iii. 19. 

"Ibn Fadhlan, ed. and trans, by C. E. Frahn, St. Petersburg, 1828. 



128 SPIRITISM iv 

detailed accounts of cremations of people of rank among 
the North Slavs. 

Teutonic cremation is recorded by Tacitus, 26 and is 
presupposed by the Edda, Nibelungenlied, and Beowulf. 
As late as A.D. 785 Charlemagne issued a decree against 
the Saxons: "If any one, in accordance with the custom 
of the Pagans, shall commit the body of a dead man to 
the flame to be burned, or shall reduce his bones to ashes, 
he shall suffer capital punishment." In Scandinavia cre- 
mations were common alongside of burials during the 
Iron Age. In Northern Norway the corpse was some- 
times burned in the ship in which during life its owner 
had sailed. 27 

From the foregoing facts it is clear that, while burial 
was probably the older custom among the Indo-Euro- 
peans, cremation was found in all branches of the race, 
and was of high antiquity. To explain the origin of this 
new method of disposing of the dead several theories 
have been proposed. E. Rohde, 28 S. Miiller, 29 and R. 
Much 30 think that it arose out of a desire to free the 
soul from its connection with the body. According to 
ancient belief it clung to its dead body and continued to 
haunt the tomb in which this was buried. The purpose 
of burial was to preserve the body as long as possible as 
a habitation for the discarnate spirit. On the contrary, 
the aim of cremation was to destroy the body as rapidly 
as possible so that the soul might be free to enter upon 
a celestial existence. According to these scholars, the 
dogma of cremation arose in one branch of the Indo- 
European race, and spread to other branches of the race. 
The chief difficulty with this theory is the antiquity of 
cremation — it goes back to the Bronze Age — which sug- 
gests that it was practised by the Aryans before their sepa- 

29 Germania, 27. 

27 See Hastings, End. Rel. and Eth., ii., p. 17. 

28 Psyche* pp. 27-36. 

29 Nordische Altertumskunde, i. pp. 363ff. 

80 Anzeiger fur deutsches Altertum, xlviii. pp. 315ff. 



iv INDO-EUROPEAN CULT OF DEAD 129 

ration; it is also improbable that a dogma of this sort 
should spread from race to race, when there is no evi- 
dence that other dogmas have spread in a similar way. 

W. Ridgeway 31 modifies the theory by the claim that 
cremation originated among the Celts, and was spread 
by them through conquest to Italy, Greece, and even as 
far as Persia and India; but of such a conquest we have 
no evidence apart from the appearance of cremation in 
all Indo-European lands. 

E. Meyer 32 holds that cremation was a primitive 
Aryan custom alongside of inhumation, but that it was 
performed originally only in the case of heroes, chief- 
tains, or kings, who were believed to partake of the 
divine nature and therefore were returned by fire to the 
celestial regions. Subsequently the rite was extended to 
ordinary persons, just as in Egypt royal funeral rites 
eventually became the property of private citizens. 33 
This theory seems best to explain the facts. In India 
young children are not burned. In Homer only heroes 
are laid on the pyre; there is no evidence that common 
people or slaves were cremated, except when they ac- 
companied their lord. The cremations among the Celts 
and Teutons which Caesar and Tacitus describe were 
evidently of nobles on account of the costly offerings that 
accompanied them. This distinction among the dead is 
found among widely scattered savage peoples. The Al- 
gonkins, for instance, burn the great, but bury ordinary 
people. 34 

e. Rites of Burial. — 1. The Place of Burial. — The 
oldest usage apparently was to bury the dead in the 
houses in which they had lived. The houses were then 
abandoned by the other members of the family. The 
memory of this custom still lingered among the Greeks 
in the Classical period. When the body of Phocion was 

81 The Early Age of Greece, i, chap. vii. 

82 Geschichte des Altertums, 2 ii. p. 771. 

83 See p. 174. 

84 Hopkins, Religions, p. 89. 



130 SPIRITISM iv 

burned in a foreign land, his wife placed the bones that 
remained in her bosom, carried them home, brought them 
in by night into his house, and buried them alongside of 
the hearth. 35 Servius 36 says that the original Roman 
custom was to bury in the house. As late as the Laws of 
the Twelve Tables people were still buried in the court- 
yard, and in the Classical period infants less than forty 
days old were buried in niches in the wall under the over- 
hanging eaves. The early sepulchral urns from Latium 
found at Alba and on the Esquiline are imitations of the 
huts in which the primitive inhabitants of the region 
dwelt. The Roman cult of the lares is closely connected 
with the interment of ancestors in the family dwelling. 
The earliest Celts also apparently buried beside the fam- 
ily hearth, and this custom lasted among the iEdui down 
to a late date. 

In the earliest times, when the house was a mere wig- 
wam, it was possible to abandon it to the dead; but with 
advancing civilisation this became impracticable, and it 
was necessary either for the living to share the abode 
with the dead, or to remove the dead from the house. 
Both methods were in use, but the latter prevailed. The 
dead were then laid in graves beside roads, or paths, 
or at cross-ways. Roads served as boundaries between 
families and clans, and where the departed were placed 
on the edge of the estate they protected it from intrusion 
by outsiders. This custom is attested in India, Greece, 
Italy, and among the Slavs; and the monuments of the 
Roman nobles still line the main thoroughfares leading 
to the Eternal City. 

The primitive Aryan grave was merely a shallow 
trench over which after burial a tumulus, or mound, was 
heaped, varying in size according to the importance of 
the individual. In the Homeric poems tumuli are reared 

85 Plutarch, Phocion, 37; cf. [Plato], Minos, 315 D. 
88 Ad Mn., v. 64; vi. 162. 



iv INDO-EUROPEAN CULT OF DEAD 131 

over the ashes of heroes, and similar "barrows" are 
found among the Celts and the Teutons. The elaborate 
"bee-hive" tombs of the Mycenaean period are probably 
pre-Aryan, and the dolmens, cromlechs, and other mega- 
lithic sepulchral monuments of northern Europe are also 
pre-Aryan. Down to the latest times the common people 
continued to be interred in simple graves. The rock- 
hewn tombs and mausolea of the Greek and the Roman 
aristocracy were imitations of Egyptian and Oriental 
fashions. 

2. Offerings Placed in the Grave. — Archaeology 
shows that from the beginning of the Neolithic age on- 
ward food and drink, weapons and ornaments, and even 
favourite animals, slaves, and wives, were buried with 
the dead in all parts of Europe. The original idea seems 
to have been that all the personal property of the de- 
ceased must go with him into the other world, and that 
he must be abundantly supplied with provisions for the 
journey. When inhumation gave place to cremation, the 
gifts were either buried with the ashes or were consumed 
on the funeral pyre. 

According to the Rig-Veda, x. 18, the ancient Aryans 
in India laid his bow in the hands of the dead warrior on 
the pyre, and then took it away from him. They also 
laid his wife upon the pyre, and then lifted her off. This 
is evidently a commutation of an original burning of the 
bow and of the widow. In modern India offerings of 
food and of water are made in connection with the cre- 
mation ceremonies, and the sati of widows has lasted 
down to modern times. 

The tombs at Mycenae, Tiryns, and other ancient cen- 
tres in Greece, which are perhaps pre-Aryan, were filled 
with food, treasures and weapons. At the cremation of 
Patroclus Achilles and his friends cut off their hair and 
laid it upon the bier. 



132 SPIRITISM iv 

"With sorrowful hearts they raised and laid the corse 
Upon the pyre. Then they flayed and dressed 
Before it many fatlings of the flock, 
And oxen with curved feet and crooked horns. 
From these magnanimous Achilles took 
The fat, and covered with it carefully 
The dead from head to foot. Beside the bier, 
And leaning toward it, jars of honey and oil 
He placed, and flung, with many a deep-drawn sigh, 
Twelve high-necked steeds upon the pile, nine hounds 
There were, which from the table of the prince 
Were daily fed; of these Achilles struck 
The heads from two, and laid them on the wood, 
And after these, and last, twelve gallant sons 
Of the brave Trojans, butchered by the sword." 37 

Pausanias, ii. 21, 7, preserves tradition of a time when 
it was customary for Greek wives to die with their hus- 
bands. So costly were the offerings that were deposited 
with the dead by the ancient Greeks that the living were 
impoverished, and early legislators found it necessary 
to check the practice by prohibitions. Early Roman 
codes also forbade the burial of gold with the dead. 

The primitive lavishness of gifts to the dead lasted 
among the Celts down to a late date. Caesar narrates: 
"Their funerals are magnificent and costly, considering 
their civilisation; and all that they think was dear to 
them when alive they put into the fire, even animals ; and 
shortly before this generation the slaves and dependents 
that they were considered to have loved, were burned 
along with them in the regular performance of funeral 
rites." 38 Pomponius Mela confirms this testimony: 
"They burn and bury along with the dead whatever is 
of use to them when alive : business accounts and pay- 
ments of debts were passed on to the next world, and 
there were some who of their own free will, cast them- 
selves on the funeral piles of their relatives, expecting 

87 Iliad, xxiii. 166ff. 

88 De Bello Gallico, vi. 19. 



iv INDO-EUROPEAN CULT OF DEAD 133 

to live along with them." 39 These customs lasted well 
down into Christian times, and are often mentioned in 
Welsh and Irish chronicles. The literary evidence is 
confirmed by archaeology. "Over the whole Celtic area 
a rich profusion of grave-goods has been found, con- 
sisting of weapons, armour, chariots, utensils, ornaments, 
and coins. Some of the interments undoubtedly point to 
sacrifice of wife, children, or slaves at the grave. Male 
and female skeletons are often in close proximity, in one 
case the arm of the male encircling the neck of the fe- 
male. In other cases the remains of children are found 
with them. Or, while the lower interment is richly pro- 
vided with grave-goods, above it lie irregularly several 
skeletons, without grave-goods, and often with head sep- 
arated from the body, pointing to decapitation, while in 
one case the arms had been tied behind the back." 40 In 
the ancient Celtic cemetery of Hallstatt 525 graves con- 
tained skeletons; and 455, ashes of the cremated. The 
same sorts of gifts were found in both, namely, orna- 
ments, implements, weapons, and vessels for food and 
drink. 

Slavic graves of the pagan period disclose the same 
sorts of offerings, and among the modern Slavs they have 
lasted with singular tenacity. Among the peasants of 
Lithuania and of Great Russia and White Russia, it is 
customary to bury with a man his pipe and tobacco, 
flint and steel, snuff-box and purse, pocket-knife and a 
little bag of copper buttons; also, if he were specially 
addicted to it, a bottle of vodka. It is not unusual for 
grave-diggers to find such bottles by accident when they 
dig in the vicinity of old graves, and they consume the 
contents with avidity. Women receive needles and 
thread, thimbles, scissors, mirrors, and toilet articles; 
and both sexes are provided with a clean handkerchief 
tucked into a pocket in the shroud. Among the Wends 

39 Chorographia, iii. 19. 

40 Macculloch, Religion of the Ancient Celts, p. 337. 



i 3 4 SPIRITISM iv 

and Kashubs, Slavic tribes of Northern Germany, fruit 
and eggs are placed in the hands of the dead, and tobacco 
and liquor are deposited with the men. As late as 745 
A.D. a Wendish wife was burned with her husband. The 
Arab historians Mas'udi and Ibn Fadhlan record the old 
Slavic custom of killing wives at their husbands' graves. 
As late as 931 A.D. there is record of a girl being buried 
with a man to accompany him into the other world. 

Among the Teutons also human sacrifice at the graves 
of chieftains was frequent. So Brynhild says: "Make a 
pyre for the Hun, my husband, and for them dying with 
him; cover it with human blood and burn me there." 
Among the Norse it was customary to burn the Vikings 
in their ships with their horses and their slaves. 

When men died unmarried, it was a primitive Aryan 
custom to provide them with wives for the other world. 
Thus the Trojan maiden Polyxene was slain at the grave 
of Achilles. In later times in Attica the loutrophoros, or 
bridal pitcher, was placed on the grave of the unmarried 
as a symbolic representation of a death-marriage. Such 
marriages were still prevalent among the Slavs in the 
time of the Arabic historians Mas'udi and Ibn Fadhlan. 
Among the modern Slavs imitation marriages are cele- 
brated in which a bride or a bridegroom is assigned to 
one who has died unmarried; but these persons are, of 
course, no longer put to death, although it may be ex- 
pected that the dead will soon claim them and they will 
follow their spouses. A survival of this custom is still 
found in Hesse in Germany, where "wreathed girls" 
accompany the coffins of unmarried men to the grave 
and wear mourning for them for four weeks. 41 

The same tendency which led to the modification of 
human sacrifice into symbolic rites led also to the com- 
mutation of costly gifts into inexpensive substitutes. In 
old Attic graves of the "dipylon period" the same offer- 
ings are found that are mentioned in Homer: jars of 

41 See O. Schrader, Totenhochzeit, Jena, 1904. 



iv INDO-EUROPEAN CULT OF DEAD 135 

food and drink, bones of sacrificed bullocks, pottery, 
weapons, ornaments, and implements. In later graves 
the offerings decline steadily in extent and in value. In 
the sixth and the fifth centuries B.C. hardly anything but 
decorated vases (lekythoi) are found; and still later the 
men receive only a few vessels of small value ; the women, 
a few ornaments; and the children, their toys. Still 
later wreaths of myrtle or of asphodel took the place of 
all other gifts. The same development took place in 
Rome, where the primitive costly grave-goods slowly de- 
clined until only flowers remained. This custom passed 
over to the Christian Church, and is the origin of the 
modern flowers at funerals. 

3. The Funeral-feast. — Sacrifice to the dead neces- 
sarily involved a sacrificial meal in which the living par- 
took of the food and so communed with the departed. 
Originally the feast took place at the grave, subsequently 
it was transferred to the house after the return of the 
mourners. Neolithic graves frequently show traces of 
such feasts in burnt coals and broken bones. In Homer 
a feast follows the cremation ceremonies. In later 
Greece, "having returned from the funeral, the members 
of the family undergo a religious purification, and then, 
crowned with wreaths, attend the funeral feast (before 
this they have abstained from wreaths). This also was 
a part of the cult of souls. The soul of the deceased 
was regarded as present, as their host; and dread of the 
invisible companion gave rise to the custom of alluding 
to him only eulogistically during the feast. The funeral 
feast was a repast for the living relatives given at the 
house of the dead person." 42 At Argentiere, Depart- 
ment des Hautes Alpes, France, it was recently the cus- 
tom to place a table upon the grave, at which the cure and 
the family dined after the funeral. In most parts of 
France the feast is now held at the house of the deceased. 
In Ille et Vilaine neither wine, cider, nor liqueur is served 

"Rohde, Psyche* i. 231f. 



136 SPIRITISM iv 

at the meal. The conversation is carried on in a low 
voice, and as the guests finish they retire. Among the 
Slavic and the Teutonic peasants of Northern Europe 
these feasts are still kept up with great strictness. Of 
these feasts among the Russians Sejn says: U A11 the 
rest of the company return (after the funeral) to the 
peasant's house, with the priest at their head, in order 
to celebrate the funeral feast. By this is meant a com- 
memoration meal for the dead person which lasts from 
two to four hours." "To this day I cherish the greatest 
respect for this burial feast, at which rude speaking, 
slander, dispute, disagreement, strife, wanton jests, and 
everything that usually accompanies gatherings of peas- 
ants, had no place. The large gathering spoke with re- 
straint, not raising their voices, and the conversation, 
whether of individuals or of the whole company, confined 
itself to the deceased, his actions, and the most trivial 
details of his life. They recalled the talk and instruc- 
tions of the dead man, especially those in which the good- 
ness of his heart shone forth." 43 

4. Funeral Games. — Among all the Aryans it was 
usual to close the funeral feast with athletic sports in 
honour of the dead. Thus at the funeral of Patroclus 
Achilles instituted chariot races, boxing, foot races and 
gladiatorial contests, and iEneas instituted similar games 
at the tumulus of Polydorus. 44 Gladiatorial games were 
celebrated at the funerals of distinguished Romans, and 
the funeral of Attila was accompanied with a spectaculum 
admirandum. It has been suggested that these contests 
are commutations of original human sacrifice at the grave, 
but this explanation hardly seems to cover all the sports 
or the dances that occur at the same time. A more prob- 
able view is that, like the feast, they are designed, as the 
Chinese say, "to give pleasure to the meritorious ances- 
tors." 45 In modern Europe these games have degener- 

43 Hastings, Enc. Rel. and Eth., ii. 20; iv. 434f. 
"Iliad, xxiii. 257ff.; JEneid, iii. 62ff. 
** See p. S3. 



iv INDO-EUROPEAN CULT OF DEAD 137 

ated into fights with cabbage heads, songs, dances, mas- 
querades, or games of cards. 

/. Cult of the Dead after Burial, — 1. Sacrifices of 
Food. — It was not sufficient merely to place food in the 
grave, supplies must be provided regularly at later times 
in order that the spirits might consume them. In India 
the Institutes of Manu, iii. 267-271, declare: "The an- 
cestors of men are satisfied a whole month with sesamum, 
rice, barley, black lentils or vetches, water, roots, and 
fruit, given with prescribed ceremonies; two months with 
fish, three months with venison, four with mutton, five 
with the flesh of such birds as the twice-born may eat, six 
months with the flesh of kids, seven with that of spotted 
deer, eight with that of the deer or antelope called Ena, 
nine with that of the Ruru deer; ten months are they 
satisfied with the flesh of wild boars and wild buffaloes, 
eleven with that of hares and tortoises, a whole year 
with the milk of cows and food made of that milk; from 
the flesh of the long-eared white goat their satisfaction 
endures twelve years. The pot herb Oc'imum sanctum, 
the prawn, the flesh of a rhinoceros or of the iron-col- 
oured kid, honey and all such forest grains as are eaten 
by hermits, are formed for their satisfaction without 
end." According to this, while the ancestors require 
regular feeding, a little food goes a long way with them. 
This is the general view of all the Aryans. Food must 
not be remitted, but it may be given in small quantities 
at long intervals. The Avesta prescribes regular offer- 
ings of food to the fravashis, and the custom lasted in 
Persia well down into the Middle Ages. Odysseus sacri- 
fices to the shades black cattle and sheep, milk and honey, 
wine, water and meal. 46 Black animals were regarded 
by the Greeks and Romans as belonging to the dark pow- 
ers of the Underworld. Swine also that rooted in the 
ground were regarded as proper sacrifices to the chthonic 
deities. In later times animal sacrifices to the dead were 

"Odyssey, xi. 23ff.; cf. x. 517-520. 



i 3 8 SPIRITISM iv 

discontinued, and only libations of milk, honey, wine, and 
water were made to them. 

Honey appears in all parts of the Aryan world as a 
food sacred to the dead. It was either offered pure, or 
was mixed with rice or barley water to form mead. In 
India the pitaras, "tormented with hunger and making 
known their own sins, demand rice-soup mixed with honey 
from their sons and grandsons." This corresponds with 
the kanunUj a mead of barley water and honey, that is 
served to the ancestors by the peasants of White Russia. 
In both the Greek and the Roman cults of the dead honey 
appears as an essential ingredient. 

Another universal article of food for the dead is little 
cakes or wafers. In India these appear as the pinda, 
or rice balls, that are offered to the ancestors. The term 
sapinda, 'cake companion,' has come to be the technical 
term for one upon whom devolves the duty of ancestor- 
worship. In Greece the melitoutta, or honey cakes, were 
given to the dead, and were popularly believed to appease 
the ferocity of Kerberos, the watch-dog of Hades. 47 
These cakes still survive among the Lithuanian and 
Russian peasants as the klecki, or 'wafers,' that form an 
essential part of every funeral feast or commemorative 
banquet. "To eat wafers" is the technical expression 
for "celebrate funeral rites," and of a person who is so 
sick that his recovery is not expected they say: "He 
will very soon have to enjoy cakes." 

Beans also were sacred to the dead in all parts of the 
Aryan world. This is the reason for their prohibition 
as ordinary food in the Vedas. They were a favourite 
offering to the dead in ancient Greece, and for this reason 
were forbidden to his followers by Pythagoras. Pliny 
says that beans are used in sacrificing to the dead because 
the souls of the dead are in them, and Ovid says that 
the witch put beans into her mouth when she tried to 
call up spirits. At the feast of the Lemuria the Roman 

* 7 Rohde, Psyche* i. p. 305. 



iv INDO-EUROPEAN CULT OF DEAD 139 

householder cast black beans behind him as an offering 
to the manes, and the Flamen Dialis was forbidden to 
eat, or even to mention beans, because of their connection 
with the shades. In modern Polish Russia we are told: 
"The foods at the commemoration feasts consist of beans 
and peas which are cooked in honey-water." 

As libations for the dead we find water and milk among 
all the Indo-Europeans. Fermented liquors also were 
in universal use, the material varying according to the 
region. In India the soma was used, in Persia the cor- 
responding haoma, in Greece and Italy wine, and among 
the Slavs and the Teutons beer, mead, and, later, distilled 
spirits. 

Human sacrifice to the dead at other times than at 
burial or cremation appears among the Romans in the 
devotio, or ban, which bears a close resemblance to the 
Semitic herem. 48 In this a person is surrendered to the 
di manes in order that a victory may be won over enemies. 
Thus in 340 B.C., at the battle of Vesuvius, Decius the 
elder devoted himself to the di manes for death in order 
that the Roman army might be victorious. The same 
thing was done by his son Decius in 295 B.C. at the battle 
of Sentinum, and by his grandson Decius in 279 B.C. 
at the battle of Asculum. 49 Of the Celts also Caesar 
records 50 that those afflicted with disease, or engaged in 
battle or danger, offer human victims, or vow to do so, 
because unless man's life be given for man's life, the 
divinity of the gods cannot be appeased. After a defeat, 
which showed the gods to be hostile, the wounded or 
feeble were slain, or warriors committed suicide as a 
voluntary sacrifice, or a general devoted himself after 
the manner of Decius. 51 There is little doubt that the 
gods to whom these sacrifices were offered were the same 
as the di manes to whom the Roman devotio was offered. 

48 Cf. Judges, xi. 30ff. 

^Livy, viii. 6, 8-16; 9, 1-11. 

™De Bello Gallic o, vi. 16. 

61 Diodorus Siculus, xxii, 9; C. Jullian, Hist, de la Ganle, ii. 158. 



140 SPIRITISM iv 

Among the Celts it was also customary to bring prisoners 
of war to the graves of ancient chieftains, and there 
behead them and suspend the heads on poles round about 
the tumulus. 52 

2. Places of Sacrifice to the Dead. — The original 
and most natural place of sacrifice was at the grave where 
the bodies or the ashes of the dead were buried. Among 
the Greeks and the Romans a regular cult was kept up 
at graves, and sacrifices and libations were offered upon 
them. At Tronis in Phocis a channel led down into the 
grave of the hero, and daily offerings of sacrificial blood 
and other libations were poured down it. 53 Many Greek 
and Roman tombs have been found containing similar 
tubes through which liquids may be sent down to the 
dead. These posthumous offerings on the grave have 
lasted in one form or another in all parts of Europe down 
to the present time. Sometimes there is nothing more 
than flowers or wreaths, at other times offerings of food 
continue to be made. The Celts of Brittany put cakes 
and sweetmeats on graves, and even in the great ceme- 
teries of modern Paris one may see cakes on the graves 
on All Saints day. Amelineau, the Egyptologist, relates 
that he knew a widow at Chateaudun who placed a cup 
of chocolate on her husband's grave every day for over 
a year after his death. In Bulgaria wine and water are 
poured on the grave for three days after the interment. 
On the fortieth day a woman goes with a priest, carrying 
cakes and wine, and the priest digs a hole in the grave 
and buries the food and pours the wine upon it. On all 
anniversaries wine and water are poured out as libations, 
and widows have been known to pour libations of coffee 
daily into a hole in the mound when their husbands were 
particularly fond of this beverage. In Croatia bread, 
eggs, and apples are laid on the grave for a number of 

days after burial. Of the peasants of White Russia 

I 

62 Macculloch, Religion of the Ancient Celts, pp. 165, 234f. 
03 Pausanias, x. 4, 7. 



iv INDO-EUROPEAN CULT OF DEAD 141 

Sejn says: "At the close of the banquet they all repair 
to the burying-ground, taking with them vodka, "bliny," 
and barley. There each family prays at the graves of its 
relatives for the peace of their souls. Then they eat and 
drink, pouring out a little vodka on the grave and throw- 
ing some morsels from each dish on it." 

A ritual substitute for the grave as a place of sacrifice 
was the trench. In ancient India three trenches were 
dug, one for each of the three immediate forefathers; 
on these grass was scattered, and cakes were spread as an 
offering. In Greece sacrifices to the dead were cast into 
the bothros, or pit. Thus in the Odyssey f xi. 25, et al., 
Odysseus digs such a trench before sacrificing to the 
shades. This method of sacrifice which was used only 
for chthonic deities was sharply distinguished from the 
ritual of sacrifice to Olympian gods. A similar institution 
among the Romans was the mundus, or sacrificial trench, 
which was located in the centre of every city. It bore 
the same relation to the inferi as the altar bore to the 
superi. 5 * 

A third seat of the cult of the dead was at the family 
hearth. This may have been a survival of primitive 
burial in the house, or it may have been due to the feeling 
that the spirits would naturally return to the scenes 
familiar to them in life. At family meals the custom 
was universal to scatter food and drink on the table for 
the ancestors, and to place the fragments that were left 
in jars to be consumed by them later. Bits that fell to 
the floor were left for the ghosts of those who had no 
relatives. This practice is attested in Greece by Diog. 
Laert. viii. 34: "Aristophanes declares that the things 
that drop from the table belong to the heroes, saying 
that the heroes get nothing except what falls from the 
tables"; and by Athenasus, x. 427 e, "For the departed 
their friends set aside the fragments of food that fall 
from the tables." The Celts of Brittany to the present 

84 See above p. 105. 



i 4 2 SPIRITISM iv 

day build up the fire and leave the fragments of their 
supper on the table for the souls of their relatives who 
come to visit them during the night. Of the Lithuanians 
and Prussians Menecius says : "If by chance anything 
falls from the table to the ground, they do not pick this 
up but leave it, as they say, as food for the forsaken souls 
who have neither relatives nor friends from whom they 
can receive entertainment." Similarly of the White Rus- 
sians Sejn says: "If at the time of the banquet any part 
of the food falls on the seat or on the floor, they dare 
not lift it up. 'That/ they say, 'someone will eat.' " 
"After they have prayed at the grave, they all separate 
and go to their homes, where they seat themselves once 
more at the table, on which the wives place pancakes 
and mead. They throw morsels of the pancakes into 
the mead. Each member of the family (with the excep- 
tion of the children) must invariably sup three spoonfuls 
of this dish. Some of this mixture they leave intention- 
ally in a soup-bowl for the 'grandfathers.' After the 
pancakes they eat the other prepared courses. When 
they have supped and prayed to God, they lie down to 
sleep, placing the remains of the mixture on the window 
sills. The remains of the other foods they divide out 
into small dishes, which in the same way are placed here 
and there beside the window. Bread and spoons are left 
on the table the whole night. The doors in the peasants' 
rooms are not locked during this night, but are left a 
little ajar, so that the dead may come in." 55 

3. Times of Sacrifice to the Dead. — Among all the 
Aryans special importance is attached to the third, sixth, 
and ninth days after interment. The three-days interval 
between these commemorations corresponds to the three 
days that usually elapse between death and burial. 
Menecius records that the heathen Prussians and Lith- 
uanians celebrated feasts for the dead on the third, sixth, 
and ninth day after the funeral. Sejn says of the peasants 

86 Hastings, Enc. Rel. and Eth„ ii. p. 27. 



iv INDO-EUROPEAN CULT OF DEAD 143 

of White Russia : "Special feasts are celebrated, in the 
circle of the family and near relatives, for each individual 
who has died in the course of the year; and they take 
place at stated intervals, though not on the same days 
or in the same months, but on the third, sixth, ninth, 
twentieth, and fortieth days, reckoning from the day of 
the burial, during a period of six months, and periodically 
thereafter in the course of the year till the date of the 
death. These commemoration feasts take place without 
the co-operation or the blessing of the Church. They 
are a relic of primitive pre-Christian customs." These 
reappear in Greece as the rpWa and evara the third and 
ninth days after burial, on which a meal was spread upon 
the grave. The belief was general among the Greeks 
that the restless ghosts of the unburied, those who had 
died untimely deaths, and the unmarried, appeared to 
the living on the ninth day after death, i.e., the sixth 
after the funeral, if this had occurred. 56 In Rome also 
we find a celebration on the third day, and a specially 
important one on the ninth day, the novendialis. 57 The 
attendance of members of the family during these nine 
days of mourning was considered so important that mili- 
tary conscripts were exempted from service, and even 
high officials were excused from their duties. The rites 
ceased on the ninth day with offerings of food to the 
dead and a banquet, the cena ncrvendialis; and in the case 
of the wealthy, with funeral games, the ludl novendiales. 
When these ceremonies were over the manes were re- 
garded as safely domiciled in Orcus, and not likely to 
trouble the living by their return. 

In India the nine-day celebration for the dead has been 
rounded off into a ten-day feast, the so-called Ekoddishta 
Sraddha, which immediately follows the cremation. At 
the time of the cremation libations of water are poured 
out to alleviate the heat and extreme thirst of the spirits 

"Rohde, Psyche* i. p. 232; ii. p. 392. 
M Vergil, Mneid, v. 46f., 105. 



i 4 4 SPIRITISM iv 

whose bodies, are being consumed. The first night after 
the cremation the nearest relatives make a cake of three 
handfuls of boiled rice, mixed with fruits of various 
sorts, honey, milk, butter, and present this to the de- 
ceased, saying, "May this first funeral cake, which shall 
restore thy head, be acceptable unto thee." "During ten 
days funeral cakes, together with libations of water and 
tila, must be offered, as on the first day, augmenting, 
however, the number each time, so that ten cakes, and 
as many libations of water and tila be offered on the tenth 
day, with this further difference, that the address varies 
each time. On the second day the prayer is, 'May this 
second cake, which shall restore thy ears, eyes, and nose, 
be acceptable.' On the third day, 'this third cake, which 
shall restore thy throat, arms, and breast.' On the fourth, 
'thy navel and organs of excretion' ; on the fifth, 'thy 
knees, legs, and feet' ; on the sixth, 'all thy vitals' ; on 
the seventh, 'all thy veins' ; on the eighth, 'thy teeth, 
nails, and hair' ; on the ninth, 'thy manly strength' ; on 
the tenth, 'may this tenth cake, which shall fully satisfy 
the hunger and thirst of thy renewed body, be acceptable 
to thee.' " 58 During this ten-day period lights are kept 
burning to light the spirit on its journey to the other 
world. The purpose of these rites is to provide the soul 
with a new body that shall fit it to enter the realm of the 
pitaras. Without this it will continue to haunt its former 
home as an unhappy preta. 59 This doctrine of the "ele- 
vation of the fathers" appears as early as the Atharva 
Veda. By these masses for the repose of their souls the 
dead secure admission to the heaven of Yama that they 
could not gain in any other way. 

The Iranian equivalent of these ceremonies is the 
dfringdn, or 'homage,' which is rendered the dead after 
exposure. Cakes of meat and of flour are presented and 
priests perform ceremonies for the repose of their souls. 

68 Colebrooke, Asiatic Researches, vii. p. 247. 

69 For similar ideas among the Egyptians see p. 166, 



iv INDO-EUROPEAN CULT OF DEAD 145 

Friends and the poor are invited to share in the feast. 
This celebration has lasted among the Armenians down 
to the present time. Among the Teutons there are traces 
of sacrifice to the dead on the third and seventh days 
after burial. 

Besides the nine-day offerings that immediately fol- 
lowed interment or cremation later offerings were made 
on fixed dates. Among the Indians, Greeks, Romans, 
and Teutons the thirtieth day after burial was such a 
time of sacrifice to the manes. Among the Lithuanians 
the thirtieth day marks the conclusion of the widow's 
period of mourning. Among the White Russians, Lith- 
uanians and Prussians the twentieth and fortieth days 
take the place of the thirtieth as days of commemoration. 
Perhaps we may suppose that the primitive Aryan custom 
was to follow the nine days of making a new body for 
the deceased with a feast on the tenth day, and then 
every succeeding tenth day until the end of the month. 
After this the commemoration occurred monthly until the 
end of the year. The anniversary of burial (or of death) 
was a great occasion among all the Aryans, that was 
celebrated each year with offerings to the dead and a 
funeral feast. The observance of the birthday of the 
deceased was a Greek innovation. 

In addition to these private family celebrations there 
were public, national sacred seasons of the dead. In 
Rome the nine dies parentales were observed from the 
thirteenth to the twenty-first of February. During these 
days tombs were repaired and ornamented, food was 
spread out for the dead, the temples of the celestial gods 
were closed, marriages might not be contracted, and 
officials laid aside their insignia of office. The ninth 
day was known as Ferdlia (from Dhuesdlia, 'feast of 
ghosts') and was the holiest of all. The Greek equiva- 
lent was the Anthesteria festival, which also occurred in 
February. The name is plausibly connected etymolog- 
ically with Latin Inferi, 'subterranean deities' ; and the 



146 SPIRITISM iv 

primitive meaning of the feast is shown by the Greek 
proverb, "Out of doors! ye keres (shades); it is no 
longer A nthe steria." This shows that the Anthesteria, 
like the Feralia, was originally a season of public placa- 
tion of ancestors. 60 The Hindu general Sraddha in 
honour of the manes is of similar origin. The Iranian 
counterpart of this celebration is the Hamaspathmaedaya 
feast which lasts from March tenth to the twentieth. 

The Roman Lemuria was observed on May ninth, 
eleventh, and thirteenth. Lemures equal larva, 'ghosts/ 
and the Lemuria are the days when the ghosts walk forth 
and need to be appeased. On these days, according to 
Ovid, 61 the house-father passed through the house bare- 
footed at midnight, casting black beans behind him, and 
saying nine times, "These I give, and with these I redeem 
myself and my family." Then he clashed cymbals, and 
said nine times, "Manes exite paterni, Go forth ye spirits 
of my forefathers." The similarity of the formula to 
that used by the Greeks at the Anthesteria is noteworthy. 

The Roman Larentalia was observed on the twenty- 
third of December. The lares were ancestors regarded 
as protecting spirits. The name is connected etymolog- 
ically with larva, 'ghost.' The festival was a sort of 
All Souls' Day in which offerings were made to all the 
dead, particularly to those who had no relatives to pro- 
vide for them. This corresponds to a general autumnal 
propitiation of the manes in India known as the Astaka 
festival. The Iranian equivalent was Farvardigan, a 
propitiation of all the dead, that was kept on the last 
ten days of the year, and included the five intercalary 
days that were necessary to equalise the civil year of 360 
days with the solar year. In the opinion of several Old 
Testament scholars this is the origin of the Jewish feast 
of Purim. 62 

60 See Harrison, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, chap. ii. 

61 Fasti, v. 419ff. 

62 See L. B. Paton, Esther, International Critical Commentary, pp. 85-87, 91. 



iv INDO-EUROPEAN CULT OF DEAD 147 

The Celtic Samhain feast was also held at the winter 
solstice. The time when vegetation lay in the sleep of 
death seemed most appropriate for the commemoration 
of spirits of the dead. Food was laid out for all the 
hungry spirits, and bonfires were kindled to warm them. 
These customs still survive in Ireland and in Brittany. 
The yule-log is probably a survival of the ancient fire 
kindled on the hearth in honour of the ancestral spirits. 63 

This All Souls' festival has survived in a peculiarly 
primitive form among the Slavs. It is observed in No- 
vember. "At this feast the dead are invited to come 
forth from their mounds to a bath and a banquet. Chairs, 
napkins, and garments are provided for all that are 
summoned in a cottage that is selected for the purpose. 
The table is loaded with food and drink. Returning 
to their own houses, they celebrate a three-day banquet, 
after which they leave all the relics of the food and the 
drink at the tombs, and bid the shades farewell." "The 
feast is a banquet to which they invite the god Ezagulis, 
saying, 'Come with the dead to eat our dainties.' " 
"Vielona, god of the dead, to whom an oblation is then 
offered, they entertain with the dead. They are accus- 
tomed to give them fried cakes cut a little in four places 
opposite to one another. These they call 'wafers of 
which Vielona is very fond.' " 64 It is probable that the 
ancient Teutons also had a general feast of the dead at 
Yule-tide. These various forms of the Larentalia have 
been transformed by the Church into All Saints' and All 
Souls' Days, which fall on November first and second. 
They have been removed from the winter solstice in 
order to avoid conflict with Christmas. Popular super- 
stitions about the ghosts coming forth on Halloween are 
survivals of ancient pagan ideas in regard to the placating 
of the spirits at the winter festival. 

g. Prayer to the Dead. — Invocation of the ancestors 

68 Macculloch, Religion of the Ancient Celts, pp. 169 i, 
64 Lasicius, De Diis Samagitarum, pp. 48-5 J, 



148 SPIRITISM iv 

accompanied every act of homage done to them. The 
lament addressed to the dead is such an invocation, and 
formed a regular part of the mortuary ritual. 65 During 
the funeral ceremonies the dead man was continually 
addressed, and his descendants explained what they were 
doing for him. Thus while the body was being cremated, 
and the libation of water was being made, the Hindu said, 
"May this oblation reach thee." With each offering that 
was presented during the ten days that followed crema- 
tion he said, "May this be acceptable unto thee." 66 

Among all the Aryans it was customary to give the 
ancestors a solemn invitation to be present at the com- 
memorative feasts in their honour. In India, after 
offering the pinda, or cake, the descendant said: "May 
our progenitors, who eat the moon plant, who are sancti- 
fied by holy fires, come by paths which gods travel. 
Satisfied with ancestral food at this solemn sacrifice, 
may they applaud and guard us." "Ye pitaras, may this 
be savoury to your taste, may each one enjoy his share." 
Similarly in the Iranian cult the fravashis are invited to 
attend the feasts that are celebrated in their honour: 
"We invoke the souls of the dead, the fravashis of the 
righteous, the fravashis of all our kinsmen that have died 
in this house, the fravashis of men and women, of both 
sexes we invoke." 67 The same invocation existed among 
the pagan Lithuanians. Menecius records: "They in- 
vite the spirit of the dead man to these feasts by praying 
before the door." The peasants of White Russia still 
entreat the forefathers to be present at the memorial 
feasts, saying, 

"Ye sacred grandfathers, we call you; 
Ye sacred grandfathers, come to us! 
Here is all that God has given. 
Ye sacred grandfathers, we implore you, 
Come, fly to us." 

•» See p. 13. 

•• See p. 144. 

87 Avesta, Yasna, xxvi. 7. 



iv INDO-EUROPEAN CULT OF DEAD 149 

While present at the feast, the ancestors were en- 
treated to grant all sorts of material blessings to their 
descendants. Thus in the Rig Veda the manes are in- 
voked: u O fathers, may the sky-people grant us life; 
may we follow the course of the living!" "Come hither 
with blessings, O fathers, may they come hither, hear us, 
address us and bless us. . . . Do not injure us for what- 
ever impiety we may as men have committed!" "Hom- 
age to you, O fathers; give us a house, ye fathers!" 
"May we have, ye fathers, wherewith to offer you!" 
In the Yashts of the later Avesta there is a voluminous 
collection of prayers to the fravashis for all sorts of 
blessings. In Attica people prayed to the ancestors at 
the time of a marriage for blessings upon the young 
couple and the gift of children. Of the White Russians 
Sejn says: "On every possible occasion the peasant ex- 
presses his worshipful remembrance of his 'grand- 
fathers. ' He does so in his daily prayer, in conversation 
in the family and in company, as well as on the different 
festive occasions. There are, too, weighty considerations 
which compel him to regard this as his duty. He is per- 
suaded that all good fortune on the farm and in life is 
produced by the continuous exertions of his ancestors, 
and is sustained by means of their blessings and their 
prayers to the Supreme Being (the latter is a modern 
idea)." 68 

Still another form of prayer found among all the 
Aryans is the request to the ancestors to depart after 
they have partaken of the funeral feast. In India after 
the presentation of the cakes the descendant says: 
"Depart, ye lovely pitaras, to your old mysterious ways, 
give us riches and good fortune, grant us abundant pos- 
session in men." In Greece the ancient formula was 
"Gupafo KTJpesy ovk <et, 'Av&earripLa" "Be off, ye spirits, the 
feast of the dead is over." In Italy at the conclusion 
of the Lemuria the householder said: "Manes exite 

a See above p. 141. 



150 SPIRITISM iv 

paterni, Depart, ye ancestral shades." Of the pagan 
Lithuanians Menecius records: "After the feast is over 
the ministrant rises from the table and sweeps the house 
with a broom, the souls of the dead he drives out like 
chickens with the dust, and he intreats them, saying, 
'Beloved spirits, you have eaten and drunk, now go out 
of doors, go out of doors.' Similarly the modern 
White Russians, at the close of the memorial banquets, 
politely dismiss their forefathers, saying: 

"Ye sacred grandfathers, ye have flown hither, 
Ye have eaten and drunk, 
Now fly away home again! 
Tell us, do you wish anything more? 
But better is it that you fly heavenwards. 
Jkysiij AkysuT 

The last is a noise made by the peasants to drive away 
fowls. This curious entreaty to depart is a survival from 
very ancient times when the dead were more feared than 
loved, and when the feasts in their honour were intended 
rather to placate them than to cultivate fellowship with 
them. 

Necromancy, or the calling up of the dead by magical 
arts in order to obtain their advice or aid or to learn the 
future from them, does not seem to have been a primitive 
Aryan institution. The early Aryans were too afraid of 
the dead to wish to encounter them more than was neces- 
sary. In Classical times, however, necromancy invaded 
the Graeco-Roman world from the Semitic Orient. 69 
The eleventh book of the Odyssey } which is commonly 
regarded as a late addition to the Homeric cycle, gives 
an elaborate account of the methods by which Odysseus 
called up the ghosts of Elpenor, of his mother, Anticleia, 
of Tiresias, the Theban seer, of Agamemnon, Achilles, 
and numerous other illustrious dead, who foretold the 
future and advised him in regard to his voyage. At all 

69 See pp. 210, 231, 256. 



iv INDO-EUROPEAN CULT OF DEAD 151 

of the supposed entrances to the Underworld in Greek 
lands psychomancy, or evocation of the dead, was prac- 
tised alongside of the cultivation of dream oracles. 
There were psychagogues also who professed to be able 
to call up the spirits in other places besides these sanctu- 
aries. Euripides, Alcestis, H3of., alludes to such arts. 
Lucian in the Philopseudes gives a long list of stories of 
necromancy. 70 These narratives bear the closest resem- 
blance to the Babylonian evocation of the ghost of 
Enkidu by Gilgamesh, and to the raising of the ghost of 
Samuel by the Witch of Endor. 

That psychomancy was not a primitive Roman insti- 
tution is shown by the fact that it was regarded with 
strong disapproval by the Government as a menace to 
the well-being of the State. The worst thing that Cicero 
could say of Vatinius was that he practised strange for- 
eign rites, sacrificing boys to the shades in order that he 
might call them up and inquire of them. Piso was accused 
of having buried human bodies under his house which he 
had sacrificed in order to bring back the dead. Others 
were accused of evoking the spirits by the sacrifice of a 
cock, or by the chanting of hymns. Horace has left a 
vivid description of the way in which two witches prac- 
tised necromancy in a cemetery on the Esquiline. At the 
new moon they crept in barefoot with their robes tucked 
up and their hair flowing. They gathered bones and 
poisonous plants. They scooped a sacrificial trench in 
the ground with their nails, rent a black lamb in pieces 
with their teeth, and let the blood fall into the trench. 
Their cries of invocation frightened the neighbours. The 
ghosts then came to drink the blood and were interro- 
gated by the witches. It is clear that we are dealing 
here with foreign arts of Oriental origin that found their 
way into Rome in the days of her decline. 

70 See Rohde, Psyche* i. 37, 213; ii. 87, 363ff. See above p. 88. 



CHAPTER V 

SPIRITISM IN EGYPT 

a. Sources of Information. — Our knowledge of the 
beliefs of the ancient Egyptians in regard to the dead is 
derived chiefly from archaeological remains, such as 
tombs and temples, inscriptions and papyri. Excavations 
have disclosed the fact, that as early as 5000 B.C. Egypt 
was already inhabited by the same race that occupied it 
in later times, and that the main features of its civilization 
were already established. The Sothic astronomical cycle, 
marked by the heliacal rising of Sirius, was probably al- 
ready instituted in the year 4241 B. C. This was eight 
centuries before Menes, the first king of Manetho's 
first dynasty. Since 1894 many remains of the pre- 
dynastic period have been found in Upper Egypt, that 
carry us back certainly into the fifth millennium B.C. 

The Thinite kings of Manetho's first and second 
dynasties (3400-2980 B.C.), which were formerly sup- 
posed to be mythical, are now known to be historical. 
Objects bearing their names have been found in various 
parts of Upper Egypt, their inscriptions are carved on 
the rocks of the traditional Sinai, and the tombs of most 
of them have been discovered at Abydos. The tomb of 
Menes, the founder of the first dynasty, was excavated 
by De Morgan at Naqada in 1897. 1 

The kings of dynasties III-VI (2980-2475 B.C.) have 
left the great pyramids, and inscriptions at the copper- 
mines of Mount Sinai. In the pyramids of the Vth 

1 See Petrie, Naqada and Ballas, 1896; Diospolis Parva, 1900; Abydos, 1902-4; 
De Morgan, Ethnographie prehistorique, pp. 142-202; Maciver and Mace, El 
Amrah and Abydos, 1902; Quibel, Elkab, 1898; Hierakonoplis, 1900ff.; Garstang, 
Makasna and Bet Khallaf, 1903. 

I5 2 



v SPIRITISM IN EGYPT 153 

and Vlth dynasties are inscribed the so-called Pyramid 
Texts. These were discovered by Mariette in 1880, and 
were published by Maspero in 1894. A critical edition 
of the text by K. Sethe appeared in 191 1, and a Ger- 
man translation by the same author has been promised. 

Translations of parts of these texts by Sethe, Erman, 
Schafer, and others, have appeared in the Zeitschrift fur 
Agyptologie, and by Breasted in his Religion and 
Thought in Ancient Egypt. These are the oldest re- 
ligious texts in the world; and have come down to us, 
not in copies made by generations of later scribes, but in 
the originals, just as they were carved nearly five thou- 
sand years ago on the walls of the royal sepulchres. 
They deal entirely with ceremonies performed for the 
benefit of the dead. 

From the Middle Empire of dynasties XI-XII (2160- 
1788 B.C.) we have the memorial stelae at Abydos, the 
biographies in the tombs of Benihassan, and the royal 
inscriptions in Nubia, at Sinai, and in the quarries. In 
this period literary papyri and private documents begin 
to become fairly plentiful. The tombs are sumptuously 
constructed, and elaborately adorned with reliefs. The 
coffins are covered with the so-called Coffin Texts, which 
are similar to the Pyramid Texts. They also deal en- 
tirely with funerary ceremonies. 

Under the New Empire of dynasties XVIII-XX (1580- 
1 150 B.C.) the historical sources become more abundant. 
There are now extensive temple and tomb inscriptions 
with accompanying reliefs. Officers of the king construct 
elaborate tombs with reliefs, frescos and inscriptions. 
Papyri and private documents of all sorts are numerous. 
In this period it becomes customary to inscribe the walls 
of tombs with religious texts preparing the deceased for 
entrance into the other world. These compose the so- 
called Book of Him Who Is in the Nether World. 2 Be- 
sides this, papyrus rolls containing various selections of 

2 See G. Jequier, Le livre de ce qu'il y a dans I'Hades, Paris, 1894. 



i 5 4 SPIRITISM v 

funerary ritual were deposited with the dead. These 
form the so-called Book of the Dead. 

From the period of Egyptian decline ( 1 150-663 B.C.) 
monuments are rarer; still, they do not fail us entirely, 
and they are supplemented by Classical sources. 

In 1822 Champollion began the decipherment of the 
Egyptian writing on the basis of the "Rosetta Stone," 
an inscription in Hieroglyphic and Demotic Egyptian and 
in Greek. In the century that has elapsed since that time 
the science of Egyptology has been so perfected that to- 
day an ordinary Egyptian text can be read with ease and 
certainty. An admirable English translation of the most 
important historical documents is given by J. H. Breasted, 
Ancient Records of Egypt (5 vols., Chicago, 1906-7). 
The Book of the Dead has been published by E. A. W. 
Budge, London, 1895; C. H. S. Davis, New York, 
1894; and by P. Le Page Renouf, continued by E. 
Naville. 3 

h. Egyptian Conceptions of the Soul. — The ancient 
Egyptians, like so many other primitive peoples, regarded 
the 'breath/ du, as the vital principle in man. Its chief 
seat was the heart, or the entrails. At death this sepa- 
rated itself from the body, and became a ba, or 'spirit.' 
The distinction between du and ba, accordingly, is similar 
to that which we make between 'soul' and 'spirit.' The 
ba is not said to exist until after death; in fact, the de- 
ceased is said to be made a ba by the ceremonies that are 
performed at his funeral by the officiating priests. In 
art the ba was represented by a human-headed bird with 

3 The most important modern works based upon these ancient sources are: 
J. G. Wilkinson, The Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, 2 1883; 
J. H. Breasted, A History of Egypt (1908); E. Meyer, Geschichte des 
Altertums" (1909); A. Wiedemann, Religion of the Ancient Egyptians (Lon- 
don, 1897); A. Erman, A Handbook of Egyptian Religion (London, 1907); 
E. Naville, The Old Egyptian Faith (London, 1906); G. Steindorff, The 
Religion of the Ancient Egyptians (New York, 1905); J. H. Breasted, Develop- 
ment of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt (New York, 1912); W. M. 
Flinders Petrie, article "Egyptian Religion" in Hastings, Encyclopedia of Religion 
and Ethics (Edinburgh, 1912); G. F. Moore, History of Religions, Chapters viii., 
ix. (New York, 1913); E. W. Hopkins, The History of Religions, Chapter xvii. 
(New York, 1918). 



v SPIRITISM IN EGYPT 15$ 

arms, holding in one hand a sail, the ideograph for 'wind,' 
or 'spirit,' and in the other hand the ( ankh, or emblem of 
'life.' This spirit-bird is often depicted in tombs, and on 
coffins and mummies, as hovering over the dead, or as 
perching in a tree and interestedly watching its own 
funeral. This conception of the ba has evidently close 
affinities with Hamitic and Semitic ideas of the disem- 
bodied spirit. 4 

Another Egyptian conception that has given rise to 
much discussion is the ka, or 'double.' Formerly this 
was regarded as a second ethereal soul that rose at death 
to the celestial regions, while the animal ba remained 
with the corpse in the grave. 5 The Egyption anthro- 
pology would then hold to a trichotomy of human nature 
into body, soul and spirit. More recent investigators 
reject this view, and hold that the ka was a tutelary spirit, 
like the Roman genius, who accompanied and guarded a 
man from birth through life and into the hereafter. 6 
It was thus roughly a counterpart of the "guardian angel" 
of later Jewish and Christian theology. Originally ap- 
parently only kings had such guardians, but later the idea 
was extended to private citizens. In the temple of Luxor 
the infant Amenhotep III is represented accompanied by 
his ka, which is the exact counterpart of himself. The 
ka, accordingly, was conceived as the invisible, spiritual 
duplicate of a man that was born with him and shared 
his fortunes from that time onward. When he died he 
was said to "go to his ka," or to "be with his ka." The 
ka protects the dead man from enemies in the other 
world, introduces him to the gods, provides food for 
him; and in the Pyramid Texts, § 1357, he and his ka 
are represented as dining together at the same table. 
In ancient texts the pair of uplifted arms that form the 
hieroglyph for ka are frequently combined with the stand- 
ard that bears the names of gods. This conception must 

* See p. 201. 

6 Compare the Chinese idea, p. 88. 

6 See p. 70. 



156 SPIRITISM v 

have an entirely different origin from that of the ba, or 
'breath.' It seems to have been developed out of the 
'shadow', which plays an important part in other early 
religions, and is possibly of aboriginal African rather 
than Hamitic or Semitic origin. A synonymous term 
for ka was y'hw (often vocalised as khu) , that is 'glori- 
ous one.' 7 It appears, accordingly, that the Egyptians 
did not believe in a plurality of souls, but only in one 
soul, ba, that went by a variety of other names; and in 
one companion spirit, ka, that also had a number of 
synonymous names. 

c. Survival of the Soul After Death. — The possible 
existence of the soul after death was a fundamental 
article of Egyptian belief in all ages. Only occasionally 
do we find some philosopher taking a sceptical attitude 
toward the question. Thus during the Middle Kingdom 
a song was composed, which must have been popular in 
later times, since two recensions have come down to us, 
one on the wall of the tomb of Neferhotep at Thebes, 
the other in a papyrus manuscript bearing the title : 
"Song which is in the house (tomb) of King Intef, the 
justified, which is in front of the singer with the harp." 
From this title the song is often called "the Song of the 
Harper." Parts of this read as follows : 

"No one cometh from yonder 
That he may describe their existence; 
That he may tell their affairs, 
That he may satisfy our heart; 
Before we also depart 
To the place whither they have gone. 

....... 

Increase still more thy pleasure, 

Let not thy heart grow weary. 

Manage thine affairs on earth 

According to the wishes of thy heart, 

For the day of mourning is coming for thee, 

When he whose heart is still hears not the laments, 

'Compare the Hebrew use of "glory" for "spirit," Gen. 49:6; Psa. 7:5; 16:9; 
108:1. 



v SPIRITISM IN EGYPT 157 

Nor he who is in the tomb perceives the weeping. 

Celebrate the glad day, 

Do not cease therein. 

Behold, no one taketh anything with him, 

And no one returneth that hath gone thither." 8 

In similar vein an epitaph of the Greek period says: 
"O father, husband, relative, priest, cease not to drink, 
to eat, to drain the cup of pleasure and of love, and to 
hold joyous festival; follow thy heart day and night 
through all the years thou shalt spend on earth. For the 
West is a land of sleep and darkness, an oppressive abode 
for those who dwell in it. They sleep, they are motionless 
forms, they never wake again to look on their brethren; 
they know not their father or their mother; their heart 
yearns not for their spouses or their children." 9 

Such thoughts made no impression upon the mass of 
the Egyptian people. They continued to embalm their 
mummies, build their tombs, and make their offerings to 
the dead, in the confidence that the spirits still lived, and 
were benefited by these things. 

d. Powers Retained by the Dead. — The future life, 
whether in the tomb, in Hades, or in Heaven, was con- 
ceived as essentially identical with the present life. The 
king remained a king, dwelling in his palace, ruling over 
his subjects, waited upon by his officials and his slaves. 
The noble continued to be a noble, with his broad estates, 
his large family, and his retinue of serfs. The head of 
the house still maintained his authority over his wives, 
children, and slaves. In the Pyramid Texts the king is 
assured that he shall not lack wives in the other world. 
His royal revenues shall also be paid to him promptly. 
His table shall lack none of the dainties to which he 
has been accustomed on earth. "Thy thousand of young 
antelopes from the highland, they come to thee with 
bowed head, thy thousand of bread, thy thousand of 
beer, thy thousand of incense that came forth from the 

8 W. M. Muller, Liebespoesie der alten Agypter, pp. 29-37. 
9 E. Naville, The Old Egyptian Faith, p. 205. 



i 5 8 SPIRITISM V 

palace hall, thy thousand of everything pleasant, thy 
thousand of cattle, thy thousand of everything thou 
eatest, on which thy desire is set, bread which cannot dry 
up, and beer which cannot grow stale." "Raise thee up ! 
Arise ! Sit down to thy thousand of bread, thy thousand 
of beer, thy thousand of oxen, thy thousand of geese, 
thy thousand of everything on which the god lives." 10 

In order to secure these good things in the other world 
they were placed with the dead in the tomb, or were 
sacrificed upon it, whence they were transported to 
Heaven by the god Thoth, by the celestial ferryman, 
or by Re himself in the solar barque. In later times 
pictures of articles placed in tombs were believed by 
sympathetic magic to cause their reproduction in the 
abode of the departed. 

Even prayer for the dead was regarded as efficacious 
in keeping them from hunger. A form repeated on 
countless tombs was : "An offering which the King gives ; 
Horus of Edfu, Osiris and Isis, may they give bread, 
beer, oxen, geese, everything good and pure for the ka 
of the deceased." xl The passer-by is begged for "that 
breath of the mouth (prayer) which is of use to the dead, 
and also not difficult, even as thou desirest that thy gods 
shall love and reward thee, and that thou shalt bequeath 
thy offices to thy children, even as thou lovest life and 
hatest death." 12 A mortuary prayer on the tomb of 
Senmut, who lived under Thutmose III, reads: "The 
oblations in the South for the ka of the magnate of the 
South and North, Senmut. May she (Mut) give the 
food-offerings in the Northland to the ka of the greatest 
of the great, noblest of the noble, Senmut. May she 
give all that comes forth from her table in Karnak, in 
the temples of the gods of the South and North to the ka 
of the master of secret things in the temple, Senmut. 
May she give the mortuary offering of bread, beer, oxen, 

10 Breasted, Religion, pp. 131-2. 

11 Breasted, Records, ii. 111. 
32 Erman, Religion, p. 125. 



v SPIRITISM IN EGYPT 159 

geese; and to drink water at the living stream; to the ka 
of the chief steward of Amon, Senmut." 13 

To those who will make offerings the dead promise 
that they will intercede with the gods on behalf of the 
donors. Thus Ptahshepses, who lived under Nuserre 
of the Vth dynasty, says : "I have made this tomb as a 
just possession, and never have I taken a thing belonging 
to any person. Whosoever shall make offerings to me 
therein, I will do it for them; I will commend them to 
the god for it very greatly; I will do this for them, for 
bread, for beer, for clothing, for ointment, and for grain, 
in great quantity." 14 Even for prayer in their behalf 
the shades will show similar gratitude. Harkhuf, who 
lived under Mernere of the Vlth dynasty, promises: 
"O ye living, who are upon earth, who shall pass by this 
tomb, whether going down-stream or going up-stream, 
who shall say: 'A thousand loaves, a thousand jars of 
beer for the owner of this tomb'; I will (intercede) for 
their sakes in the Nether World. I am an excellent, 
equipped spirit, a ritual priest, whose mouth knows." 15 

e. Powers Gained by the Dead. — In spite of all these 
materialistic features that have been described which 
made the future life resemble the present life, the ancient 
Egyptians, like all other early races, regarded the dead 
as beings akin to the gods, and therefore possessed of 
transcendent intelligence and might. At first the king, 
and subsequently all the deceased, were identified with 
Re and later with Osiris. They rode with him in the solar 
barque through the sky, descended with him into Hades 
during the night, and rose triumphant with him in the 
morning. Like the gods, they were unrestricted by condi- 
tions of space or time. Whether in the Grave, in Hades, 
or in Heaven, they could come at the call of their wor- 
shippers to enjoy the sacrifices that had been prepared 
for them. From the sepulchral chamber in the heart of 

18 Breasted, Records, ii. 355-6. 
"Ibid., i. 252. 
"Ibid., i. 329. 



160 SPIRITISM v 

the pyramid the spirit of the Pharaoh could pass through 
hundreds of feet of solid masonry, through the massive 
false door that adorned the fagade of the pyramid, and 
appear in the mortuary chapel to receive the homage 
and the offerings of the priests. In the New Empire the 
tombs of kings and of nobles were hidden deep in caverns 
in the rock, and their chapels were miles away; but this 
did not prevent them from coming to enjoy their cult. 
Even Hades and Heaven were not so remote that they 
could not return to earth on frequent occasions. For 
this reason they were spoken of as "those who go in and 
go out of the Nether World." They were also called 
the "glorious ones," the "imperishable ones," the 
"mighty," the "triumphant," the "victorious." The 
superhuman powers that they possessed were the same 
that we have found already in primitive religion and in 
the religion of China. 

I. Control of Physical Objects. — Spirits of the dead 
were believed to occupy statues, just as gods were believed 
to occupy images. In tombs of nobles of the Old Empire 
the mummy was placed in a rock-hewn chamber at the 
bottom of a vertical shaft. The shaft was filled in with 
stones, and above it was built a stone or brick truncated 
pyramid known by the Arabic name of mastaba, or 
'bench.' Within this was a small chapel for presenting 
offerings ; and behind this, separated by the false door, a 
walled-in chamber, known in Arabic as serddb, or 'cellar,' 
containing a portrait-statue of the deceased. He was 
thought to occupy the statue, and to receive through 
the false door the gifts that were presented to him. 
Occasionally a slit or hole was made in the masonry 
to allow the spirit egress and ingress. When later the 
mortuary chapel was separated from the tomb and was 
elaborated into a temple, the statue of the deceased was 
moved with it. The inscriptions contain frequent mention 
of the setting up of such statues in tombs and in temples. 
Many authors speak of these as "statues of the ka," 



v SPIRITISM IN EGYPT 161 

but there is no foundation for this term either in the 
tomb texts or in the inscriptions placed upon these 
statues. 16 

Spirits of the dead were able to control these statues 
so as to reveal their will through them. An inscription 
discovered at Sakkara in 1898 relates that in the reign 
of Ahmose I (1580-1557 B.C.) a certain Nesha received 
from the king an estate which he bequeathed to his 
descendants, stipulating that it should not be divided. In 
the reign of Ramses II, three hundred years later, the 
courts permitted the division of the estate; but Pasar, 
son of Mesmen, appealed the case to the statue of the 
deified Ahmose as it was being carried in procession, 
and the statue by nodding confirmed his claim to the 
estate. 17 Similar accounts are given of gods controlling 
their statues. Thus in the time of Ramses II the prince 
of Bekhten in Mesopotamia had given his daughter in 
marriage to the Pharaoh. When her sister fell ill, he 
requested that the miracle-working statue of Khonsu-the- 
Plan-Maker might be sent to heal her. The king sub- 
mitted the matter to the decision of two images of 
Khonsu. "Then they led Khonsu-in-Thebes-Beautiful- 
Rest to Khonsu-the-Plan-Maker, the great god, smiting 
the evil spirits. Then said his majesty before Khonsu-in- 
Thebes-Beautiful-Rest : 'O thou good lord, if thou in- 
clinest thy face to Khonsu-the-Plan-Maker, the great god, 
smiting the evil sprits, he shall be conveyed to Bekhten.' 
There was a violent nodding. Then said his majesty: 
'Send thy protection with him, that I may cause his 
majesty (the idol) to go to Bekhten, to save the daughter 
of the prince of Bekhten.' " This nodding image of 
Khonsu is mentioned again by Hrihor of the XXIst 
dynasty. A nodding image of Amon is mentioned by 
Merneptah of the XlXth dynasty, by Hrihor of the 
XXIst dynasty, and by Menkheperre of the XXIst 

18 See G. Steindorff, Zeitschrift fur agyptische Sprache, 48, 152-9. 

"A. Moret, in Comptes Rendus de I'Academie des Inscriptions, 1917, pp. 157-165. 



1 62 SPIRITISM v 

dynasty. 18 If spirits could do such things as this, it is 
probable that they possessed in Egypt all the powers of 
levitation and of control that they manifested elsewhere, 
although we have no explicit records to this effect. 

2. Control of Animals. — The ancient belief that 
spirits of the dead entered into animals,, particularly 
those that prowled about tombs, existed also in Egypt. 
The Coffin Texts of the Middle Empire already contain 
magical formulas by which the deceased may transform 
himself into certain birds or animals. These charms are 
greatly amplified in the texts of the New Empire which 
constitute the so-called Book of the Dead. Thus in the 
recension of the Book of the Dead found in the Papyrus 
of Ani, edited by Budge, chapter lxvii treats of "changing 
into a golden hawk"; lxxvii, "changing into a divine 
hawk"; Ixxxi, "changing into a lotus"; lxxxiii, "changing 
into a bennu bird"; lxxxiv, "changing into a heron"; 
lxxxvi, "changing into a swallow"; lxxxviii, "changing 
into a crocodile." In another recension the dead man 
becomes a serpent by saying: "I am the serpent whose 
years are long. I lie down and am born every day. I 
am the serpent at the ends of the earth. I lie down, 
then I am born, I am re-established, I grow young every 
day." 

This is the basis on which Herodotus 19 asserts : 
"The Egyptians were the first to broach the opinion 
that the soul of man is immortal, and that, when the 
body dies, it enters into the form of an animal which is 
born at the moment, thence passing on from one animal 
into another, until it has circled through all the forms 
of all the creatures which tenant the earth, the water, 
and the air, after which it enters again into a human 
frame, and is born anew. The whole period of the trans- 
migration is, they say, three thousand years. There are 
Greek writers, some of an earlier, some of a later date, 
who have borrowed this doctrine from the Egyptians, 

"Breasted, Records, iii. 440, 444, 580; iv. 615, 617, 655-6, 658. 
"II. 123. 



v SPIRITISM IN EGYPT 163 

and put it forward as their own." This opinion is not 
sustained by the evidence of the Egyptian monuments. 
These show something far simpler than the philosophic 
doctrine of transmigration. The Egyptian idea is the 
same that we find among all ancient races and among 
modern savages, that the discarnate spirit can enter tem- 
porarily into the bodies of animals. Out of this primitive 
zoomorphism the doctrine of transmigration, as a means 
of explaining the problem of evil and of securing retribu- 
tion, was evolved in India, whence it travelled to Greek 
thinkers such as Pythagoras and Plato. 20 

3. Re-animation' of Dead Bodies. — The belief in a 
possible resurrection of the flesh that we found in China 21 
has not certainly been discovered in Egypt. The spirit 
inhabits the mummy, and it is most important for the 
welfare and peace of the soul that its body be preserved, 
but it does not revive the body. The Egyptian doc- 
trine of resurrection was apparently a resurrection of the 
spirit from the sleep of death rather than a resurrection 
of the flesh. It was akin to Paul's conception of resur- 
rection in I Corinthians, 15:35 sq.: "It is sown a nat- 
ural body; it is raised a spiritual body. . . . Flesh and 
blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth 
corruption inherit incorruption." 22 No case of physical 
resurrection is recorded in any Egyptian text, nor is a 
future resurrection of the body anticipated. Several 
competent scholars, however, think differently on this 
matter, and hold that such passages from the Pyramid 
Texts as are quoted below under /, which call upon the 
Pharaoh to arise and receive his food, refer to a literal 
resurrection of the flesh. The idea of rebirth in a new 
body, which is found in so many other parts of the world, 
is also wanting in Egypt. 

4. Obsession of Living Men. — The dead were be- 
lieved to be envious of the living, and therefore to enter 

30 See p. 99f. 

31 See p. 26. 
33 See p. 296. 



1 64 SPIRITISM v 

into the bodies of men causing disease and death. In 
the Book of the Dead (ed. Naville, 92, 10) the gods 
are adjured to "shut up the shadows of the dead, and 
the dead who work evil to us." An officer who had lost 
his wife, and who had fallen ill soon afterwards, was 
told by a soothsayer that his wife was lonely without 
him, and that she was trying to kill him. Accordingly 
he wrote a letter to her, which he deposited in her grave : 
"What evil have I ever done thee that I am now in 
such misery? What have I done to thee that now thou 
layest hands upon me ? From the time that I became thy 
husband, up to this day, have I ever done aught that I 
would have hidden from thee? . . . When I was ap- 
pointed to all manner of offices, I was still by thy side, I 
left thee not, and brought no grief into thy heart. . . . 
When thou didst sicken with the sickness which thou hast 
suffered, I went to the chief physician; he prepared medi- 
cines for thee, and did all that thou didst desire of him. 
(After thy death) I besought Pharaoh and came hither 
to thee and mourned thee greatly with my people before 
my house." 23 The princess of Bekhten mentioned above, 
who was cured by the image of Khonsu, was obsessed by 
an evil spirit, probably of the dead, although this is not 
expressly stated. A series of exorcisms used by mothers 
to drive malignant ghosts away from their children has 
come down to us. One of these reads as follows : 

"Run out, thou who comest in darkness, who enterest in stealth, 
His nose behind him, his face turned backward, who loseth that 

for which he came. 
Run out, thou who comest in darkness, who enterest in stealth, 
Her nose behind her, her face turned backward, who loseth that 

for which she came. 
Comest thou to kiss this child? I will not let thee kiss him. 
Comest thou to soothe him? I will not let thee soothe him. 
Comest thou to harm him? I will not let thee harm him. 
Comest thou to take him away? I will not let thee take him 

away. 

23 Erman, Life in Ancient Egypt, p. 151f. 



v SPIRITISM IN EGYPT 165 

I have made his protection against thee out of efet-herb which 

hurts, 
Out of onions which harm thee; 
Out of honey which is sweet to (living) men, and bitter to those 

who are yonder; 
Out of the evil (parts) of the ebdu-Rsh, out of the jaw of the 

meret, 
Out of the backbone of the perch." 24 

The reference to honey as "bitter to those who are yon- 
der" shows that the evil spirits who are dreaded are 
those of the dead. 

5. Possession of Living Men. — The same princess 
of Bekhten who was obsessed by an evil spirit also spoke 
under the influence of this spirit. "Then said this spirit 
which was in her before Khonsu-the-Plan-Maker-in- 
Thebes, 'Thou comest in peace, thou great god, smiting 
the barbarians. Bekhten is thy city, its people are thy 
servants, I am thy servant. I will go to the place whence 
I came to satisfy thy heart concerning that on account 
of which thou comest. Let thy majesty command to 
celebrate a feast-day with me and with the chief of 
Bekhten.' " This indicates that spirits of the dead con- 
trolled mediums, just as the gods inspired prophets. Un- 
fortunately our information on this subject is not so com- 
plete as we could wish. 

/. The Abode of the Dead. — 1. The Grave. — In 
no land was the disembodied spirit associated more closely 
with the corpse than in Egypt. It was believed that the 
ha constantly returned to the body as its proper dwelling- 
place; and that if the body perished, the soul would 
eventually perish also. Hence the mummification of 
corpses in order to preserve them, hence also pyramids 
and secret tombs to guard them from molestation or 
destruction. In case that any accident happened to the 
mummy, statues of the deceased were placed in the tomb 
in order that the soul might occupy one of these. The 
inscriptions on tombs frequently contain curses upon 

** Erman, Zauberspriiche fur Mutter und Kind, Berlin, 1901, p. 12f. 



i.66 SPIRITISM v 

anyone who shall violate them. Thus Harkhuf, who 
flourished under Mernere of the VI th dynasty, says: 
"As for any man who shall enter into this tomb as his 
mortuary possession, I will seize him like a wild fowl; 
he shall be judged for it by the great god." 25 The 
restoration of mummies was a pious act that was fre- 
quently undertaken by later generations. Thus under 
Ramses XII of the XXth dynasty Hrihor, the high priest 
of Amon, restored the mummies of Ramses II and of 
Seti I that had been damaged by tomb-robbers, and left 
a record of this fact on their coffins. Paynozen I of the 
XXIst dynasty also accumulated much merit by repairing 
the damaged mummies of his predecessors. 26 

The soul was believed to share in the unconsciousness 
of the body produced by death, and from this it must be 
roused by magical ceremonies before it could enter upon 
its new existence. The Pyramid Texts contain numerous 
incantations, doubtless recited by the priests, that are 
intended to rouse the spirit from the sleep of death. 
"Ho, King Unis! Thou hast not departed dead, thou 
hast departed living"; "Thou hast departed that thou 
mightest live, thou hast not departed that thou mightest 
die"; "Thy bones perish not, thy flesh sickens not, thy 
members are not distant from thee"; "Raise thee up, 
King Pepi, receive to thee thy water, gather to thee thy 
bones, stand thou upon thy two feet, being a glorious 
one before the glorious. Raise thee up for this thy bread 
which cannot dry up, and thy beer which cannot become 
stale." 27 Here we have a process of resurrection that 
takes place immediately after death, and that is effected 
through the sacramental activities of the survivors. This 
is what is called "making a man a ba." If these cere- 
monies are neglected, the presumption is that the soul will 
not survive the catastrophe of death, and will not return 
to occupy its mummy. These rites are apparently an 

28 Breasted, Records, i. 330. 
M Ibid., iv. 592-4; 634-47. 
27 See Breasted, Religion, pp. 57, 58, 91. 



v SPIRITISM IN EGYPT 167 

evolution out of ancient efforts to recall the soul at the 
moment of death. 

The most primitive belief in Egypt, as in other lands, 
was that spirits of the dead inhabited their tombs. This 
was an inevitable inference from the close connection be- 
tween the ba and the mummy. For this reason tombs 
of the wealthy were constructed like houses, and were 
filled with all good things that the deceased had used in 
life. Even the poor were not buried without food, drink, 
clothing, ornaments and tools. The tomb was known as 
the "eternal house," as in the Phoenician inscriptions and 
in Ecclesiastes 12:5. A certain Zau, son of Zau, who 
flourished under Pepi II of the Vlth dynasty, records 
in his inscription: "Now, I caused that I should be 
buried in the same tomb with this Zau, in order that I 
might be with him in one place; not, however, because 
I was not in a position to make a second tomb; but I 
did this in order that I might see this Zau every day, in 
order that I might be with him in one place." 28 The 
prosperous saw to it that tombs were constructed for 
themselves during their lifetimes; and if they failed to 
complete the task, this was a solemn responsibility that 
rested upon their sons. In order to secure maintenance 
of their tombs and regular presentation of the necessary 
offerings of food and drink, the rich were accustomed to 
leave endowments in perpetuity. As early as the IVth 
dynasty we find deeds recorded on the walls of tombs 
conveying lands and whole villages of serfs to certain 
guilds of priests on condition that they keep up the cult 
of the donor on certain specified days. Such mortuary 
endowments were often accompanied with curses upon 
the person who should presume to violate the conditions 
of the trust. Thus the deed of Amenhotep III of the 
XVIIIth dynasty concludes with the words: "As for 
the general and scribe of the army who shall follow 
after me and shall find the ^-chapel beginning to decay, 

M Records, i. 383. 



1 68 SPIRITISM v 

together with the male and female slaves who are culti- 
vating the field for my endowment, and shall take away 
a man therefrom in order to put him to any business 
of Pharaoh, L. P. H., or any commission, may his body 
be accursed." To similar effect Seti I of the XlXth 
dynasty says: "As for anyone who shall avert the face 
from the command of Osiris, Osiris shall pursue him, Isis 
shall pursue his wife, Horus shall pursue his children, 
among all the princes of the necropolis, and they shall 
execute their judgment with him." 29 

The aim was to make these endowments perpetual, 
and to care for the tomb, the mummy, and the mortuary 
offerings, as long as the world should endure ; of course, 
this hope was not realized. Endowments were usually 
respected as long as the dynasty lasted under which they 
were made, but when a new dynasty came to the throne 
they were confiscated and the tombs were neglected. 
There were, however, cases in which the trusts were kept. 
The dark period of civil strife and decline that intervened 
between the Old Kingdom and the Middle Kingdom ob- 
literated ancient trusts. When Egypt once more rose to 
glory under the Xlth dynasty (2160 B. C), the tombs of 
the first kings at Abydos and the pyramids of the later 
kings were already in ruins. The endowments had lapsed, 
the priests had departed, and the offerings to the dead 
had ceased. A thousand years had elapsed since the first 
of the great pyramids had been built, and five hundred 
years since the last one, and this had been sufficient to 
reduce them to a desolation similar to that which they 
present today. The futility of these efforts to secure a 
physical immortality impressed itself even upon poets 
who lived four thousand years ago. In the so-called 
"Song of the Harper" the bard laments: 

"The gods who were of old, 
Who rest in their tombs, 
The mummies and the shades together, 

28 Records, ii. 925; iii. 194. 



V SPIRITISM IN EGYPT 169 

Interred in their tombs, 

Who built their sanctuaries, 

Their place is no more. 

What is it that has been done to them? 

I have heard the words of Imhotep and of Hardedef, 

Who were famous for their utterances. 

What has becomes of their places? 

Their walls are torn down, 

Their place is no more, 

As though they had never been." 30 

Imhotep was the architect of the stepped pyramid of 
Zoser of the Hid dynasty, and Hardedef was the son of 
Khufu (Cheops), the builder of the Great Pyramid. 
The tombs of these famous men had already disappeared 
2000 B.C. 

Numerous attempts were made by pious persons to 
repair certain tombs. Thus a certain Intef, prince of 
Hermonthis, during the Middle Kingdom boasts: "I 
found the chamber of offerings of the prince Nekhti- 
oker fallen down, its walls were old, all its statues were 
broken, there was no one who heeded it. Thus it was re- 
built, its site was enlarged, its statues were renewed, and 
its door built of stone, so that his place surpassed that 
of other noble princes." Such sporadic efforts were 
useless, however, to check the ravages of time. 

2. The Dead Dwell in an Underworld. — This was 
the teaching of the religion of the god Osiris which 
developed in pre-dynastic times in the Delta. Its origi- 
nal seat was Dedu, in Greek times known as Busiris. 
Before the union of Upper and Lower Egypt under the 
rule of Menes (3400 B.C.) it had already spread into 
the hostile southern kingdom, and had established itself 
at Siut, and then at Abydos which subsequently became 
its chief centre. 

The Osirian religion taught that there was an Under- 
world, into which the sun descended through the gate of 

30 W. M. Muller, Die Liebespoesie der alien Agypter, Leipzig, 1899, p. 29. 



170 SPIRITISM v 

the West, which he traversed during the night, and from 
which he emerged in the East in the morning. This was 
the abode of spirits of the dead. The belief is identical 
with the Babylonian conception of Aralu (see chapter 
vii) , and with the Hebrew conception of Sheol (see chap- 
ter ix) , and it is possible that its appearance in Egypt may 
be due to Semitic influence. Similar beliefs, however, 
have arisen independently in other parts of the world, 
so that it may be a purely Egyptian development. 

This region was known as Earu, 'the Field of Rushes.' 
It was a counterpart of the Delta with its numerous 
canals and reedy swamps. Here the dead tilled the soil, 
as in life, and the wheat grew higher than their heads. 
Another name was Amenti, 'the West.' Its inhabitants 
were known as "Westerners," or "Children of the West." 
To "go West" was a euphemism for death, a phrase that 
has had a strange revival during the recent World-War. 
Still another name was Dewat, the 'Nether World.' It 
was pictured as a subterranean counterpart to Egypt, with 
the river Nile flowing through the midst, and cliffs on 
either side in whose caverns the shades dwelt as they 
dwelt in their tombs on either side of the terrestrial Nile. 
In the daytime this is a land of darkness and desolation; 
but at night, when the sun descends into this world, "the 
departed, who are in their halls, in their caverns, praise 
the sun, their eyes are opened, their heart is full of felicity 
when they behold the sun; they shout for joy when his 
body is over them." 

In order to reach the gate of the West through which 
the sun and the spirits of the dead entered the Nether 
World it was necessary to cross the sea. In order to 
pass this there was need of the ferryman "Look Behind," 
or "Face Backward," so called because he poled his barge 
facing backward like a Nile boatman. 31 With reference 

31 Compare the Babylonian conception p. 217, and Charon's ferry across the 
Styx. 



v SPIRITISM IN EGYPT 171 

to this voyage "landing" and "mooring" were used as 
euphemisms for death. 

The ruler of the Underworld was Osiris, who bore the 
title Khenti-Amentiu, "First of the Westerners." He 
was a personification of the reproductive energy of nature 
that snowed itself in the annual overflow of the Nile, in 
the fertile soil that it deposited, and in the vegetation 
that grew upon the soil. He died annually with the 
ripening of the crops in summer, and came to life again 
with the inundation of the autumn. The myth of Osiris has 
come down to us completely only in the late Greek form 
preserved by Plutarch in his treatise De hide et Osiride, 
but nearly all the elements of this story can be traced 
back as far as the Pyramid Texts. In ancient times he 
reigned righteously and peacefully over the land of Egypt, 
he taught the people agriculture, and gave them laws 
and civilization. He was slain by his wicked brother Set, 
and cast into the waters of the overflowing Nile, where 
he drifted, according to Plutarch, as far as Byblos 
(Gebal) in Phoenicia. His sister-wife Isis and his sister 
Nephthys searched for him throughout the world, until 
at last they found him, mourned over him, and embalmed 
him. He was laid in a tomb in Abydos, and a sycamore 
tree grew and enclosed his body. Then through inter- 
course with his mummy, according to the oldest version 
of the story in the Pyramid Texts, Isis conceived and 
brought forth Horus, a personification of the Sun, who 
through his radiance awakens the dead vegetation to new 
life. When Horus grew up, he fought with Set to avenge 
his father's death. He lost an eye in the conflict, but 
finally overthrew his foe. By means of his torn-out eye 
he roused the spirit of his father, and made him a ba. 
Set was then tried before a tribunal of the gods, and 
was convicted, while Osiris was vindicated. As a reward 
•of his virtue he received the sovereignty of the Under- 
world. "He entered the secret gates in the splendid 



[172 SPIRITISM v 

precincts of the lords of eternity, at the going down of 
him who rises in the horizon, upon the ways of Re in the 
Great Seat." 32 

Osiris was thus a prototype of the experience of every 
mortal. He was the "first born from the dead." Fol- 
lowing his example, men also might hope to attain to 
the spirit-life that he enjoyed in Hades. If the same 
rites were performed for them that were performed for 
him, the same magic words uttered, the same funereal 
ceremonies observed, they would be as efficacious as they 
had been in his case. Osiris thus became pre-eminently 
the god of the dead; and the human elements of his cult, 
his death, the mourning of his wife and his sister, the 
self-sacrifice and filial devotion of his son, and his resur- 
rection, appealed so strongly to the imagination, that al- 
ready in pre-dynastic times he became the favourite god 
of the common people throughout the whole of Egypt. In 
process of time the worshipper was identified so com- 
pletely with the god that his disembodied spirit was 
addressed as Osiris. Through the proper sacramental 
rites he had become one with Osiris, and shared in all 
his post-mortem experiences. This conception of the ex- 
istence of the dead in the Nether World is irreconcilable 
with the more ancient belief that they live in the tomb, 
but both beliefs flourished side by side throughout the 
whole course of Egyptian history. 

3. The Dead Live in the Sky. — This was the doctrine 
of the Solar theology that had its chief centre at Heli- 
opolis. Here the sun-god Re was the supreme divinity. 
As early as the IVth dynasty his name appears as an 
element in the names of the kings Dedef-Re, Khaf-Re, 
Menku-Re. The pyramid was his sacred emblem, and 
the tombs of the kings of this dynasty were, therefore, 
pyramidal in form. From the Vth dynasty onward the 
Pharaohs assumed the title "Son of Re," and claimed 

32 For the later forms of the myth of Osiris and for its Oriental parallels see 
J. G. Frazer, Adonis, Attis, Osiris, London, 1907. 



v SPIRITISM IN EGYPT 173 

to be physically descended from the sun-god. For per- 
sons of this celestial origin an abode in the Underworld 
was inappropriate, hence the priests of Heliopolis de- 
veloped the doctrine that the deceased monarch did not 
enter the gloomy realm of Osiris, but joined his father 
Re in the sky. This is the message of the Pyramid Texts. 
The pyramid is adjured not to admit Osiris or any of 
his company when they come "with an evil coming." To 
the dead king it is said : "Thou lookest down upon Osiris 
commanding the glorious dead. There thou standest, 
being far from him; for thou art not of them (the dead), 
thou belongest not among them." "Re has freed King 
Teti from Kherti, he has not given him to Osiris." In 
this theology the basis of the hope of resurrection is 
not the revival of vegetation, as in the Osirian system, 
but is the daily rising again of the sun from the death 
into which he sinks during the night. "This King Pepi 
lives as lives Re, who has entered the west of the sky, 
when he rises in the east of the sky." The home of the 
soul is no longer in the west where the sun goes down, 
as in the Osirian theology, but in the east where the 
sun rises. 

In order to reach the abode of Re the deceased mon- 
arch has to be ferried across the "Lily Lake" eastward, 
just as those who go down to Dewat have to be ferried 
westward. In case that the ferryman is unwilling to 
carry him over, the king is provided by the Pyramid 
Texts with all sorts of arguments and charms to compel 
him; or if these are unsuccessful, he may cross on a pre- 
historic catamaran, or may fly over like a wild goose. 
Arrived on the eastern side, he finds the ladder on which 
the sun-god climbs up from the horizon to the zenith. 
Up this he ascends, supported on the arms of assisting 
gods. At the zenith he finds the palace of his father 
Re, whose gates open wide before him. Heralds an- 
nounce his coming, and he is admitted to the fellowship 
of his heavenly father. He becomes mystically one 



174 SPIRITISM v 

with Re, so that he himself is addressed as Re, and 
shares in all the sun-god's experiences. 

In the Pyramid Texts the solar hereafter is limited to 
the king who has the blood of Re in his veins. The de- 
scriptions of his beatification are found only in the royal 
pyramids. The nobles of the Old Empire made no 
use of these texts in their tombs. In the Middle Empire, 
however, other persons besides the monarch began to 
employ these liturgies, and the hope of a solar immor- 
tality eventually became the possession of all Egyptians. 

These three heterogeneous and irreconcilable concep- 
tions of the future life, that it was spent in the Grave, in 
the Underworld, and in the Sky, lasted side by side 
down to the latest times, and mingled with one another 
in the mortuary texts in the wildest confusion. Even 
as early as the Pyramid Texts Osirian elements intruded 
themselves into the Heliopolitan doctrine of the Solar 
hereafter of the Pharaoh. The dead monarch is ad- 
dressed as "Osiris, lord of Dewat." At the beginning of 
sections he is called Osiris, King Unis, Osiris, King Pepi, 
etc., although in the body of the utterances there is no 
mention of Osiris or of his realm, but the contents are 
entirely Solar. Some passages are found in the earliest 
pyramids that are purely Solar, but in later pyramids 
they have been Osirianised. Evidently the king wished 
to take no chances in the future life. If any benefit 
was to be derived from the Osirian ritual, he wished to 
enjoy it in conjunction with that received from the Solar 
ritual. The Pyramid Texts show as a whole the Solar 
theology with a strong tincture of the Osirian. The 
Coffin Texts of the Middle Empire, and the Book of the 
Dead of the New Empire, on the contrary, show a 
fundamentally Osirian doctrine with the intrusion of 
numerous Solar elements. The one point of contact be- 
tween the two systems is that the sun goes down into the 
Underworld at night. On this small foundation rest all the 
attempts that are made to combine theoretically the 



v SPIRITISM IN EGYPT 175 

Solar and the Osirian eschatologies. The primitive doc- 
trine that the soul remains with the body in the tomb 
persists both in the Solar and in the Osirian faiths and 
in all combinations of the two. The only attempts at 
harmonization are the picturing of the future life, 
whether in Heaven or in Hades, in terms of the existence 
of the mummy in the tomb. Order is never introduced 
into the confusion, but the picture of the future life re- 
mains to the end a wild, unorganized phantasmagoria. 

g. Deification of the Dead. — From the earliest times 
the Egyptian kings were deified during their lifetimes. 
In no country of the world did emperor-worship attain 
such a magnificent and consistent development as in 
Egypt. The cults of living kings in Babylonia, among 
the Greeks in the Seleucid period, and in Rome, were 
but feeble imitations of the Egyptian model. Already in 
the Old Empire the King was regarded as the physical 
off-spring of the sun-god. The only distinction between 
him and the other gods was that they were called "great 
god," while he was called "good god." The noble of 
the period spoke of himself as "beloved of his god," 
meaning the Pharaoh. The king was regarded as an 
incarnation of the sun-god on earth. His palace was 
called the "horizon," when he appeared in public he was 
said to "rise," and when he died he was said to "set" ; 
but he had no temples dedicated to him, and received no 
sacrifices at the hands of priests, at least in the early 
period. 

In foreign countries, however, that were conquered by 
Egypt, such as Nubia and Syria, temples were built to 
him alongside of his father Re, and a regular sacrificial 
cult was kept up. In the famous Tell el-Amarna letters, 
that were written by kings in Canaan to the Egyptian 
kings Amenhotep III and Amenhotep IV about 1400 
B.C., we learn that the image of the Pharaoh was set 
up in certain cities together with that of Amon-Re; and 
that on stated occasions the Syrian princes were required 



176 SPIRITISM v 

to pay homage to it. The writers of these letters address 
the king as "my lord, the lord of the lands, my father, 
my sun, the sun of heaven, the sun of the lands, my god, 
the breath of my life." The worship of the king seems 
to have consisted chiefly in the burning of incense ; hence 
when a beleaguered town wished to surrender, it signi- 
fied this by holding up a lighted censer on its battlements. 33 

These deified monarchs naturally remained deities after 
death, and even rose to the higher rank of "great god" 
by becoming one with Re or Osiris. The cult of ancient 
kings is mentioned repeatedly in the inscriptions of their 
successors. A text of Sesostris III of the Xllth dynasty 
at Mount Sinai reads: "Ameni, favourite of Hathor, 
mistress of the malachite country, of Soped, lord of the 
East, of Snefru, lord of the highlands, and of the gods 
and goddesses who are in this land." Here King Snefru 
of the Hid dynasty, one of the earliest monarchs to mine 
copper at Sinai, is regarded as a god of the region on an 
equal footing with Hathor and Soped. He appears in the 
same capacity in an inscription of Amenemhet III of the 
Xllth dynasty. 34 

Besides the kings, ancient worthies who were distin- 
guished for their wisdom or for their virtue were deified 
by posterity. Among these was Imhotep, the architect 
of King Zoser of the Hid dynasty, who was famous also 
as a physician. His tomb near the step-pyramid of his 
royal master at Sakkara was early visited by the sick 
who sought healing from him. In Greek times a temple 
was built on this site, and a complete cult was instituted 
in honour of the sage. The priests regarded him as 
a son of Ptah, and the Greeks identified him with 
Asklepios, their god of healing. His worship spread over 
all Egypt, even as far as the island of Philae on the 
Nubian frontier. 35 Another deified hero was Amenhotep, 
son of Hapi, who flourished under Amenhotep III of 

83 See Breasted, Records, ii. 893-8; iii. 173, 502, 504. 

"Ibid., i. 722. 

es See K. Sethe, Imhotep der Asklepios der Aegypter, Leipzig, 1902. 



v SPIRITISM IN EGYPT 177 

the XVIIIth dynasty. He was a descendant of the an- 
cient nomarchs of Athribis, and held the office of chief 
prophet of that district. He filled high positions under 
the king and left a number of mortuary inscriptions. 
He lived over eighty years, and became so famous for 
his wisdom that an inscription on the temple of Der 
el-Medineh at Thebes says of him: "His name shall 
abide forever, his sayings shall not perish." In the time 
of the Greek king Ptolemy Euergetes II he was wor- 
shipped as a god, and the Egyptian historian Manetho, 
as quoted by Josephus, 36 says of him: "He seemed 
to partake of a divine nature, both as to wis- 
dom and knowledge of the future." In the case of both 
these heroes the first clear evidence of their worship 
comes from the Greek period, still this was probably 
only a survival of ancient custom. 37 

Even ordinary mortals in course of time came to be 
identified with Osiris or with Re at death, and therefore 
were entitled to divine homage at least on the part of 
their descendants. Children and children's children unto 
the third and fourth generation felt it incumbent upon 
them to care for the tombs and to keep up the offerings 
to the forefathers. The princes of Hermopolis under 
the Xllth dynasty restored the tombs of ancestors who 
had lived six hundred years earlier, and recorded their 
filial piety as follows: "He made it as a monument for 
his fathers, who are in the necropolis, the lords of the 
promontory; restoring what was found in ruin and re- 
newing what was found decayed, the ancestors who were 
before not having done it." 38 Ancestor-homage never 
attained the proportions in Egypt that it did in China 
because it was overshadowed by the cult of the great 
gods, still it held its own as an important part of the 
national religion down to the latest times. The rites 

88 Against Apion, i. 26. 

87 See Breasted, Records, ii. 911-927. 

™Ibid., i. 689. 



178 SPIRITISM v 

that are described in the following paragraphs are evi- 
dence of the deification of the dead. 

h. Preparation of the Corpse for Burial. — Recent 
excavations have shown that in the pre-dynastic period 
the Egyptians took no such elaborate care of the bodies 
of the dead as was the custom in later times. They were 
usually buried without covering or coffin, rarely with 
a skin or linen wrapping. They were placed in the so- 
called "embryonic" position, with the knees drawn up 
closely under the chin, lying on the right side, with 
the head turned toward the north, and the face toward 
the east, the region of the rising sun. 

This lasted under the Thinite kings of the first two 
dynasties, but under the pyramid-builders of the Old 
Kingdom the practice of embalming came into general 
use. The entrails were removed, and were placed in four 
so-called "canopic" jars, whose covers were respectively 
the head of a man, of an ape, of a jackal, and of a hawk, 
representing four genii, the children of Horus, who 
guarded the dead. The body was soaked in salt water, 
and was dipped in bitumen. The abdominal cavity was 
stuffed with cloths saturated with various preservative 
substances. The body was then wrapped in numerous 
bandages, and the process of mummification was com- 
plete. Embalming varied all the way from the simplest 
pickling in the case of the poor to the long and expensive 
treatment that was bestowed upon kings and nobles. 
Sebni, a noble who lived under Pepi II of the Vlth 
dynasty (c. 2500 B.C.), records how his father, Mekhu, 
perished in an expedition against Nubia; how he set out 
with troops and with one hundred asses loaded with gifts 
in order to secure his father's body for embalmment. He 
succeeded in pacifying the country and in rescuing the 
body. As he was coming down the river, he was met 
by an official who brought "embalmers, the chief ritual 
priest, . . . the mourners and all offerings of the 
White House. He brought festival oil from the double 



V SPIRITISM IN EGYPT 179 

White House, and secret things from the double w'bt 
house, . . . from the 'h } house, clothing of the double 
White House, and all the burial equipment which is 
issued from the court, like the issuance for the hereditary 
prince, Meru." 39 It was the custom of the kings to 
make gifts for embalming to deserving subjects. A certain 
Zau records that at the death of his father Pepi II "be- 
stowed a coffin, clothing, and festival perfume for this 
Zau. His majesty caused that the custodian of the royal 
domain should bring a coffin of wood, festival perfume, 
j//-oil, two hundred pieces of prime linen, and of fine 
southern linen, taken from the double White House of 
the court for this Zau." 40 

From this time onward embalming continued to be 
the custom until the triumph of Christianity in Egypt. 
Mummies are frequently mentioned in the inscriptions, 
and the Old Testament narrates how the bodies of Jacob 
and of Joseph were embalmed in Egypt in order that 
they might be carried to Canaan. 41 

Thousands of mummies of kings, of nobles, and of 
private citizens of all periods have lasted down to the 
present time, and are preserved in the museums of Egypt, 
Europe, and America. During the unsettled period of 
the XXIst dynasty when the decline of Egypt had begun, 
the authorities were no longer able to protect the tombs 
of the ancient Pharaohs, and they were frequently rifled. 
To prevent further desecration the mummies of the great 
kings of the XVIIIth and XlXth dynasties were 
removed from their resting places, and were secreted 
in a rocky cleft near Der el-Bahri. Here they were 
discovered in 1871 by modern tomb-robbers, who man- 
aged to keep their secret from the Government until 
1 88 1, when they were tracked, and the royal mummies 
were discovered and placed in the museum at Cairo. 
Here one may now look upon the face of Thutmose III, 

39 Breasted, Records, i. 370 

*° Ibid., i. 382. 

"Genesis, 50:1-3, 13, 26; Ex. 13:19; Josh. 24:32. 



180 SPIRITISM v 

the Asiatic conqueror (1500 B.C.); Thutmose IV, his 
grandson; Seti I, of the XlXth dynasty; Ramses II, his 
son, the Pharaoh who oppressed the children of Israel. 

At the various times when these mummies were trans- 
ferred from one hiding-place to another, inscriptions were 
placed upon them by the later kings who attended to the 
business. Thus the mummies of Ahmose I, Amenhotep 
I, Thutmose II, Seti I, Ramses II, and Ramses III all 
bear dockets of Paynozem I, Menkhepperre, or Payno- 
zem II of the XXIst dynasty. 42 

Enclosed in the wrappings of the mummies was the 
most costly jewelry. Specimens that have been recov- 
ered from the Middle Kingdom show an excellence 
of workmanship that has scarcely been surpassed in 
modern times. Among the treasures of the Cairo Museum 
are the ornaments of the princess Sit-Hathor (Xllth 
dynasty), princess Khnumet, and princess Ita. The 
largest and most extraordinary collection was found with 
the mummy of Queen Ahhotep, the mother of Ahmose 
I. 43 The confession of a tomb-robber under the XXth 
dynasty states: "We found the august mummy of this 

king There was a numerous list of amulets and 

ornaments of gold at its throat; its head had a mask 
of gold upon it; the august mummy of this king was over- 
laid with gold throughout. Its coverings were wrought 
with gold and silver, within and without; inlaid with 
every splendid costly stone. We stripped off the gold 
which we found on the august mummy of this god, and 
its amulets and ornaments which were at its throat, and 
the coverings wherein it rested." 

Herodotus, ii. 86-88, gives an elaborate account of 
embalming as it was practised in Egypt in his day (484- 
424 B.C.). He says that there was a professional 
class of embalmers who prepared first, second, or third 
class mummies according to the price paid. u The mode 

a Breasted, Records, iv. 637-642, 644-647, 663-668. 
43 Baedeker, Egypt," pp. 82-83. 



v SPIRITISM IN EGYPT 181 

of embalming according to the most perfect process is 
the following: — They take first a crooked piece of iron, 
and with it draw out the brain through the nostrils, thus 
getting rid of a portion, while the skull is cleared of the 
rest by rinsing with drugs ; next they make a cut along the 
flank with a sharp Ethiopian stone, and take out the whole 
contents of the abdomen, which they then cleanse, wash- 
ing it thoroughly with palm-wine, and again frequently 
with an infusion of pounded aromatics. After this they 
fill the cavity with the purest bruised myrrh, with cassia, 
and every other sort of spicery except frankincense, and 
sew up the opening. Then the body is placed in natrum 
for seventy days and covered entirely over. After the 
expiration of that space of time, which must not be ex- 
ceeded, the body is washed, and wrapped round from 
head to foot with bandages of fine linen cloth smeared 
over with gum, which is used generally by the Egyptians 
in the place of glue. . . . Such is the most costly way 
of embalming the dead." He then goes on to describe 
the second and the third class methods of embalmment. 
In all probability this method had been transmitted with 
punctilious exactness from high antiquity. The pro- 
cesses of manufacturing and of transporting mummies as 
depicted in the reliefs on the tombs may be seen in Wilkin- 
son's Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, 
vol. iii. chap. xvi. 

The process of mummification was accompanied at 
every point with recitation of ritual texts for the benefit 
of the spirit of the deceased. Inscriptions of the Old 
Kingdom mention along with the embalmers the chief 
ritual priest and two subordinate classes of religious func- 
tionaries whose duties are not clearly understood. The 
ritual of embalming has come down to us only in a late 
form. Apparently the priests impersonated the gods 
who embalmed the body of Osiris, and the texts recited 
affirmed the identity of the departed with Osiris. 

In the Old Kingdom it was customary to enclose the 



1 82 SPIRITISM v 

mummy in a wooden coffin within a stone sarcophagus. 
This was generally a simple polished chest with a flat 
cover; or else, probably in imitation of the coffin of Osiris, 
it had four corner posts and a dome-shaped cover. Some- 
times it was decorated to represent a tomb of the earliest 
period with a number of doors. Opposite the face of the 
mummy a pair of eyes was often painted so as to enable 
it to behold the rising sun. The tomb inscription of 
Weshptah, who flourished under Neferirkere of the Vth 
dynasty, states that the king presented him with an ebony 
coffin. Hotephiryakhet under the next monarch states 
that the king honoured him with a stone sarcophagus. 
Nezemib a little later also received a sarcophagus, and 
a relief that accompanies the inscription shows the heavy 
sarcophagus and its lid being transported across the river 
on a barge. Uni, a servant of Mernere of the Vlth 
dynasty, narrates: "His majesty sent me to Ibhet, to 
bring the sarcophagus (named) 'Chest of the Living,' 
together with its lid and the costly, splendid pyramidion 
for the pyramid (called) 'Mernere Shines and is Beauti- 
ful' of the Queen." 44 

In the Middle Kingdom the coffins were elaborately 
decorated with paint, and the insides were covered with 
religious texts similar to the Pyramid Texts designed 
to facilitate the entrance of the deceased into the other 
world. Before the coffins were put together the boards 
were hastily and carelessly covered by a scribe with a selec- 
tion of passages furnished by the local priests. Chap- 
ters were often repeated, and in one case the same chapter 
is found five times in a single coffin. The chief thought 
seems to have been to cover the surface with some sort 
of a religious text. Among these are passages taken 
from the Pyramid Texts which originally were intended 
only for the king, but were now applied also to the aris- 
tocracy. Other passages were taken from more popular 
Osirian funerary rituals, and were the forerunners of the 

"Breasted, Records, i. 247, 253, 275f., 321. 



v SPIRITISM IN EGYPT 183 

material that subsequently made up the Book of the Dead. 
No two coffins agree in the selections that are made and 
new texts are constantly being discovered. 45 

In the New Empire the fashion arose of shaping the 
outer sarcophagus in the form of a mummy. The 
face was shown, and was sometimes a portrait of the 
deceased. It was decorated with imitation bandages in 
the form of lattice work, and the intervening spaces were 
filled with pictures of the gods, scenes from the other 
world, and fragments of texts. Some of the earlier 
mummy-cases look as if they were wrapped in wings. 
The symbolism refers to the myth of Isis who enveloped 
the dead Osiris with her wings. These mummy-cases 
were manufactured by the wholesale, and spaces were 
left on them to be filled in with the name of the deceased. 
In a number of cases the undertakers have neglected to 
fill up this space. 

i. Graves and Tombs. — The graves of the common 
people in the pre-dynastic period were simple shallow 
trenches in which the body was placed in the "embryonic" 
position, lying on its side with its face toward the east. 
The trench was filled in with sand, and a small heap of 
sand and stones was reared over it. Care was taken to 
place graves above the annual inundation of the Nile, 
and a preference was shown for the west bank of the 
river, the region in which the sun went down into the 
Underworld; hence the name "Westerners" for the dead. 
Ancient cemeteries are found all along the edge of the 
desert in Upper Egypt, and thousands of these prehis- 
toric sepulchres have been excavated in recent years. 
Slightly more elaborate forms of burial are to roof the 
grave over with branches, to invert a large pottery bowl 
over the body, to place it inside of a jar, or to line the 
tomb with brick and place a flat stone slab over it. A 
still finer method was to sink a short shaft in the rock, 

46 A large collection of these so-called "Coffin Texts" has been published by 
Lacau, Textes religieux, Recueil de travaux, vol. 26 sq. 



1 84 SPIRITISM v 

excavate a small chamber in one side for the body, wall 
up the opening, fill the shaft with rocks, and build a 
tumulus over it. 

Out of the tumulus the mastaba was developed. It 
was a truncated pyramid of brick through which the 
tomb-shaft ran up to the top. After the body had been 
deposited in the burial chamber at the bottom this was 
filled up with stones and sealed. On the eastern side 
was a false door without any opening through which the 
spirit passed out and in. In front of this was a shelf 
or table for receiving offerings that were brought by the 
descendants of the deceased. A further development 
of the mastaba was the construction within of a doorless 
chamber for the portrait-statue of the owner of the tomb, 
and a chapel for the presentation of offerings instead of 
the primitive shelf. The mastaba of Menes, the first 
historic king, contained a central chamber for the body 
of the king, surrounded by four other chambers. The 
nobles of the Old Kingdom continued to enlarge the 
mastabas until they became veritable houses with apart- 
ments for every purpose. The tomb of one official of the 
Vlth dynasty had as many as thirty-one rooms. The 
evident idea was to provide the dead man with a palace 
such as he had occupied during his life. 

When the mastabas, which at first were only royal 
tombs, began to become popular among the nobles, the 
Pharaohs commenced constructing pyramids for them- 
selves. The first known pyramid is the step-pyramid 
of Zoser of the Hid dynasty (2980 B.C.) at Sakkara. 
It marks the transition architecturally from the mastaba 
to the true pyramid, and is the first royal tomb to be built 
of stone. Beginning with a mastaba of the usual type, he 
gradually enlarged this as his reign went on, until at the 
end he had a structure like a ziggurat of ancient Babylonia 
in six stages with a height of one hundred and ninety-five 
feet. This is the first great architectural undertaking 
in stone that is recorded by history. The later kings of 



v SPIRITISM IN EGYPT 185 

the Hid dynasty probably constructed the stone pyramids 
of Dahshur, which are the earliest specimens of this type 
of architecture. They bear witness to the wealth and 
power as well as the engineering skill of this dynasty. 
Snefru, the last monarch of the Hid dynasty, probably 
built the terraced pyramid at Medum, and also the pyra- 
mid with a double slope at Dahshur. 

Khufu, the founder of the IVth dynasty (c. 2800 
B.C.), the Cheops of the Greeks, was the builder of the 
Great Pyramid of Gizeh near Cairo, the largest struc- 
ture ever reared by the hand of man. Originally this 
covered an area of about thirteen acres. The length 
of each side was about 755 feet. The height was about 
481 feet. The altitude of each sloping side was about 
619 feet. It contained originally about 3,277,000 cubic 
yards of masonry. Professor Flinders Petrie estimates 
that there are in it 2,300,000 separate blocks of stone, 
each containing 40 cubic feet. These blocks, which rise 
like giant steps, are about three feet in height. The whole 
was covered with a casing of dressed stones fitted together 
so closely that a knife-blade could not be inserted between 
the joints. Herodotus, ii. I24f., describes the building 
of this colossal edifice. "He closed the temples, and for- 
bade the Egyptians to offer sacrifice, compelling them 
instead to labour, one and all, in his service. Some were 
required to drag blocks of stone down to the Nile, from 
the quarries in the Arabian range of hills; others received 
the blocks after they had been conveyed in boats across 
the river, and drew them to the range of hills called 
the Libyan. A hundred thousand men laboured con- 
stantly, and were relieved every three months by a fresh 
lot. It took ten years oppression of the people to make 
the causeway for the conveyance of the stones, a work 
not much inferior, in my judgment, to the pyramid itself. 
This causeway is five furlongs in length, ten fathoms 
wide," and in height, at the highest part, eight fathoms. 
It is built of polished stone, and is covered with carvings 



1 86 SPIRITISM v 

of animals. It took ten years to make the causeway, the 
works on the mound where the pyramid stands, and the 
underground chambers, which Cheops intended as vaults 
for his own use. These last were built on a sort of island, 
surrounded by water introduced from the Nile by a 
canal. The Pyramid itself was twenty years in build- 
ing." These traditions which Herodotus gathered from 
the Egyptians bear witness to the awful cost of human 
labour and suffering at which these "eternal habitations" 
of the ancient Pharaohs were built. 

The two other pyramids at Gizeh, which are smaller 
than that of Khufu, were erected by Khafre and Men- 
kure, later kings of the same dynasty. The kings of the Vth 
and of the Vlth dynasties also reared pyramids, less mag- 
nificent than those of their predecessors, but still extra- 
ordinarily great. In spite of the five thousand years 
that have elapsed since the first of these was built, and 
all the depredations of succeeding generations, the 
pyramids of the Old Kingdom still stand in a line sixty 
miles long on the margin of the western desert as awe- 
inspiring as when they were first erected, the monuments 
of a titanic effort to conquer death by securing an eternal 
preservation of the body. 

This form of architecture was chosen by the kings 
probably because the pyramid was the emblem of their 
father Re, the sun-god. In his sanctuary at Heliopolis 
the most sacred object was an ancient pyramidal fetish 
stone called the ben. The pyramidal tops of obelisks 
were also solar emblems. It was fitting that the dead 
Pharaoh, who looked for a solar immortality, should lie 
in a tomb that was itself a symbol of the sun-god, and 
whose top stone was a pyramidion of special sanctity. 
Architecturally the pyramid was nothing more than an 
evolution of the primitive tumulus. It contained merely 
the burial chamber hidden in its depths, access to which 
was closed by huge blocks of stone as soon as the body 
was placed within it, while false passages were constructed 



v SPIRITISM IN EGYPT 187 

to lead astray would-be intruders. There was no mor- 
tuary chapel in the pyramid itself. Instead of this a 
temple was erected on the east side of the pyramid, where 
there was a false door before which offerings were 
presented, and through which the spirit of the royal 
dead could pass. From this temple a long causeway 
led to the Nile, with another temple at its eastern end. 

The sepulchral chamber and passages of the older 
pyramids were unadorned, but under the Vth and Vlth 
dynasties they were inscribed with the so-called Pyramid 
Texts. 46 These contain myths of the gods, hymns, and 
other fragments of extremely ancient ritual, magical 
charms to rouse the spirit of the dead and to give it 
vitality in the other world, a ritual of mummification 
and of burial, a ritual for the presentation of offerings 
at the tomb pyramid, and collections of prayers to the 
gods on behalf of the dead. The material is divided 
into sections, each introduced with the formula, "Recite 
the words." The pyramid of Unis contains two hun- 
dred and twenty-eight of these utterances. The later 
pyramids bring the number up to seven hundred and four- 
teen. In the printed edition of Sethe they fill a thousand 
and fifty-one quarto pages. Their purpose was to facili- 
tate the attainment of solar immortality by the dead 
Pharaoh. 

The Old Kingdom ended in ruin and civil strife, in- 
duced perhaps by the exactions of the monarchs for 
building these costly tombs. When, three hundred years 
later, the nation revived under the Xlth dynasty (2160 
B.C.), no attempt was made to rival the efforts of the 
past. The kings of this dynasty left small pyramids of 
sun-dried bricks on the edge of the desert west of Thebes. 
They were still in good condition in the time of Ramses 
IX of the XXth dynasty when they were entered by tomb- 
robbers, but they have disappeared at present. The 
great kings of the Xllth dynasty contented themselves 

" See p. 153. 



1 88 SPIRITISM v 

also with modest brick pyramids, all of which show the 
most elaborate devices of false passages and trap-doors 
designed to frustrate the efforts of tomb-robbers. These 
pyramids still extend from the entrance of the Fayum as 
far as Memphis, but all are in a very ruinous condition. 

Around the pyramid of the sovereign were grouped 
the mastabas of his nobles and of the royal princes and 
princesses. These lay in regular lines on streets, and 
formed a veritable city of the dead. The necropolis was 
in charge of an army of mortuary priests, custodians, and 
workmen, the so-called "children of the cemetery." 

During the Middle Kingdom the nobles began to aban- 
don the mastaba tomb and to hew out sepulchres for 
themselves in the cliffs that wall in the Nile valley. The 
finest of these are at Benihasan in Middle Egypt. 47 
The architectural features of these tombs are as follows: 
first, a court open to the sky in front of the tomb, then 
a vestibule cut out of the solid rock with pillars supporting 
the roof, behind this a large hall, also excavated out of 
the rock, and also having its ceiling supported by pillars, 
and back of this a small chamber for the statue of the 
owner. The sepulchral chamber was reached by a shaft 
from the hall of columns. The walls of the tomb were 
decorated with scenes from domestic life and with in- 
scriptions recounting the life of the deceased. 48 

During the New Empire the kings abandoned the 
pyramids and adopted the rock-tombs of the nobles of 
the Middle Kingdom. These hypogaea differed consider- 
ably, however, from the older type. A long passage 
through the rock led to a series of chambers, and beyond 
these, or beneath them with a concealed entrance, was the 
"gold house" in which the sarcophagus was placed that 
contained the royal mummy. All the mighty rulers of 
the XVIIIth, XlXth, and XXth dynasties were buried in 
such rock-tombs excavated in a narrow mountain gorge 

47 See Baedeker, Egypt, 5 p. 197. 

48 Ste Newberry, Beni Hasan; Breasted, Records, i. 619 sq. 



v SPIRITISM IN EGYPT 189 

west of Thebes now known as Biban el-Muluk. The walls 
of the chambers were no longer covered exclusively with 
domestic scenes, as in the earlier rock-tombs, but also 
with religious ritual similar to the Coffin Texts.* 9 The 
mortuary chapels were no longer connected with the 
tombs but were developed into splendid temples on the 
other side of the mountain at Der el-Bahri or in the plain. 
Several private tombs have successfully eluded discovery 
down to recent times, and have been found by archaeol- 
ogists with all their treasures intact. 

j. Deposits in Tombs. — In the pre-dynastic period 
there were buried with the dead jars and bowls of food 
and drink that he might not hunger in the other world, 
flint knives and harpoons so that he might hunt and de- 
fend himself, clothing and ornaments, slate palettes for 
grinding green malachite face-paint, a bag for holding the 
pieces of malachite, and even a draught-board for his 
amusement. Already at this early period models were 
deposited in graves instead of real articles, the idea 
being that they were magically converted into the spiritual 
counterparts needed by the deceased. Thus we find 
models of boats, of cattle, of hippopotami, of servants, 
and of steatopygous women gaily painted, presumably 
the Houris of the other world. 50 

The chambers of the royal mastabas of the 1st dynasty 
were furnished with couches of ivory, inlaid and carved 
tables and chairs of the most artistic workmanship, and 
marvellous jars made of the hardest stone worked out 
with stone tools until their walls were as thin and trans- 
lucent as glass. There were also stores of food of all 
sorts, and jars of beer and of wine sufficient to last the 
spirit of the dead king for many days ; A large memorial 
stone bearing in huge hieroglyphics the name of the king 
was also set up in the tomb. In small chambers around 
the monarch were buried the bodies of his wives, his 

49 See Baedeker, Egypt, 5 pp. 262, sq. 

50 See p. 48f. 



1 9 o SPIRITISM v 

guards, his dwarfs, and even his dogs, with small tablets 
bearing their names. The suspicion is strong that, as 
among so many other primitive peoples, these were slain 
in order to accompany their lord into the spirit-world. 

The same intellectual processes which in China led to 
the substitution of imitations instead of real gifts to the 
dead, led also in Egypt to the gradual disappearance of 
tomb-deposits. In the mastabas of nobles of the Old 
Kingdom contemporary with the great pyramids of the 
Hid to the Vlth dynasties the food-dishes were reduced to 
tiny conventional substitutes; and in place of the costly 
furniture and provisions, the walls were decorated with 
pictures of the things that the deceased might need in 
the future life. By "sympathetic magic" these pictures 
produced the corresponding spiritual equivalents. They 
showed the noble in a skiff with his wife, hunting wild 
fowl with a boomerang, or spearing a hippopotamus with 
a harpoon. Peasants tilled the fields with yokes of oxen, 
reaped the grain and threshed it. Cattle were brought 
in herds and were butchered. Women ground the wheat 
into flour, made bread and baked it, and prepared all the 
other dishes for the noble's table. All the scenes of a 
busy agricultural and commercial civilization were rep- 
resented, and these pictures form an inexhaustible mine 
of information in regard to the life of the Old Kingdom. 
By these means the noble hoped to secure the same crea- 
ture-comforts in eternity that he had enjoyed in time. 
He could take nothing out of the world, but by this simple 
process he provided himself with a letter of credit that 
was negotiable in the "land of no return." This same 
custom continued in the mastabas and rock-tombs of the 
Middle Kingdom. 

In tombs of the New Empire, as we have seen, these 
pictures of daily life are replaced by religious texts and 
scenes from the Underworld. These form the so-called 
"Book of Him Who is in the Nether World." This 
describes the journey of the sun-god through twelve cav- 



v SPIRITISM IN EGYPT 191 

erns of Hades which correspond to the twelve hours 
of the night. It tells of the monsters and perils that 
are there to be encountered, and how they may be escaped 
by the judicious use of magical formulas so that one may 
complete the journey with the sun-god and rise with him 
in newness of life in the East. The material is similar 
to that of the Coffin Texts and to that found in the 
papyrus rolls containing the Book of the Dead. 51 

Even under the New Empire the burial of food and 
furniture with the dead did not cease. The tombs of 
Yuya and Thuya, the parents of Tiy, the queen of Amen- 
hotep III, which were discovered untouched by Mr. 
Theodore M. Davis of Newport, R. I., in 1905, con- 
tained sumptuous furniture of all sorts. The same was 
true of the untouched tomb of Amenhotep II. The ac- 
counts of tomb-robberies under the XXth dynasty also 
report that the thieves u had stolen their articles of house- 
furniture which had been given them." 

A curious survival of the ancient custom of burying 
models of persons and things with the dead is seen in 
the so-called ushebtis, little glazed pottery figures that 
have been found in vast numbers in tombs of the New 
Empire. These are mostly in mummy form, and carry 
sacks and hoes, or other tools, over their shoulders. The 
inscription on them reads: "O, thou ushebti, when I am 
called, and when I am required to do any kind of work 
which is done in Hades . . . and when I am required 
at any time to cause the fields to flourish, to irrigate the 
banks, to convey sand from the east to the west, thou 
shalt say, Here am I." These figures are mentioned in 
the Book of the Dead in the chapter entitled "Causing 
that the Ushebti Do the Work of a Man in Dewat. ,} The 
idea evidently was that King Osiris might call upon his 
subjects to work in the Elysian Fields. The aristocrat, 
who had no taste for this sort of labour, provided for the 
emergency by having great numbers of ushebtis on hand 

" See G. Jequier, Le livre de ce qu'il y a dans I'Hades, Paris, 1894. 



192 SPIRITISM v 

who through the power of the magic formula inscribed 
upon them would take his place when they were sum- 
moned. 

Another peculiarity of the mortuary customs of the 
New Empire was the burial of numerous amulets and 
other magical objects with the deceased. One of these 
was the "Horus-eye," an imitation in blue or green enamel 
or in precious stone of the plucked-out eye of Horus with 
which he had resuscitated his father Osiris. Another was 
the so-called heart-scarab, which was designed to take 
the place of the heart of the dead man when it was 
weighed in the judgment before Osiris. These scarabs 
were inscribed with the words : "O heart that I have 
from my mother! O heart that belongs to my spirit! 
Do not appear against me as a witness, do not oppose me 
before the judges, do not contradict me before him who 
governs the balance." Still another magical object was 
the small stone pyramid that was frequently placed in 
tombs of the New Empire. It was made with two doors 
on opposite sides, in which the deceased was represented 
adoring the rising and the setting sun. Through this 
solar emblem it was hoped that the soul would be united 
with the sun-god in his rising as well as in his setting. 
Besides these there were pectorals placed on the breast 
of the mummy, sceptres, crowns, head-dresses of the gods, 
head-rests, squares, levels, staircases, etc. A late text 
enumerates one hundred and four articles of this sort 
that are necessary for the repose of the soul. 52 

Of similar character were the papyrus rolls containing 
magical texts that during this period were deposited with 
the dead. The rolls contained a few fragments of the 
Pyramid Texts, large selections from the Coffin Texts, 
and additional material from other sources. There was 
no standard edition in this period, but the scribes made 
at pleasure excerpts from the sources at their disposal. 
Some rolls were eighty feet long, and contained one 

82 See Erman, Religion, pp. 140-147. 



v SPIRITISM IN EGYPT 193 

hundred and thirty chapters ; others were small, and con- 
tained only the most important chapters. These con- 
stituted the so-called Book of the Dead. It was a sort 
of guide-book to the Underworld, and contained the 
charms that were necessary to bring one safely through 
the perils of that realm. The finer rolls were magnifi- 
cently illustrated with coloured vignettes depicting scenes 
in Hades. These help to explain the obscure text, and 
are a rich mine of information in regard to the mythologi- 
cal conceptions of the ancient Egyptians. 

The wealth that was buried with the dead in all periods 
was a constant temptation to rob graves, in spite of the 
heavy legal penalties and the terrors of religion. Most 
of the tombs of the Old Kingdom were violated during 
the period of disorder that followed the Vlth dynasty; 
those of the Middle Kingdom, during the period of the 
Hyksos ; and those of the New Kingdom, during the de- 
cline that followed the XXth dynasty. Sporadic robbery 
went on all the time, so that it is a rare event when an 
unviolated tomb is discovered by an archaeologist. Even 
the Pharaohs Ramses II and Merneptah did not scruple 
to steal the mortuary furniture of their predecessors. 

Under Ramses IX of the XXth dynasty there was an 
epidemic of robberies at the royal tombs in the necrop- 
olis of Thebes, in which even officials of the Government 
were involved. The Papyrus Abbott contains a record 
of the royal investigations and legal proceedings at this 
time. After a detailed report of individual tombs ex- 
amined, there follows this summary: "These are the 
tombs and sepulchres in which the nobles, the . . ., the 
Theban women, and the people of the land rest, on the 
west of the city; it was found that the thieves had broken 
into them all, that they had pulled out their occupants 
from their coverings and coffins, they (the occupants) be- 
ing thrown upon the ground; and that they had stolen 
their articles of house-furniture, which had been given 
them, together with the gold, the silver, and the orna- 



i 9 4 SPIRITISM V 

ments which were in their coverings." 53 The culprits were 
found and were punished at this time, but the tomb-rob- 
beries continued, and the Government was powerless to 
prevent them. It was this miserable state of affairs that 
led to the removal of the royal mummies from their tombs 
and concealment in the rock cleft near Der el-Bahri, where 
they were found in 1 8 8 1 . 

k. Shrines for the Cult of the Dead. — The earliest 
holy place was the grave itself on which offerings were 
laid and ceremonies were performed. The next stage 
of development was a shelf in front of the false door 
of the mastaha on which gifts for the occupant of the 
tomb were placed. A further evolution carried the false 
door back into the interior of the tomb so as to leave 
a small mortuary chapel in front of it. Still later the 
chapel was separated from the tomb in the form of an 
independent edifice built against the east side, as was the 
case in the royal pyramids. The final stage of the de- 
velopment was the erection of a mortuary temple at 
some distance from the tomb, as was the practice of the 
Pharaohs of the New Kingdom. The temples in front 
of the great pyramids of Gizeh were no less remarkable 
than the pyramids themselves, if we may judge from the 
scanty remains that excavation has disclosed. The 
kings of the Middle Empire, in proportion as they de- 
creased the size of their pyramids, increased the magnifi- 
cence of their mortuary temples. The nobles of the same 
period, who constructed the rock-tombs, had, besides the 
chapels in these tombs, also mortuary chapels in their 
native towns for the easier celebration of the rites of their 
worship. 

Amenhotep I of the XVIIIth dynasty was the last king 
to construct a mortuary chapel in front of his tomb. His 
successors, in order to escape desecration of their graves, 
concealed them in the Biban el-Muluk near Thebes on 
the west side of the cliffs that enclose the Nile valley, 

83 Breasted, Records, iv. 499-556. 



v SPIRITISM IN EGYPT 195 

at a distance of two miles from the river, and accessible 
only by a circuitous path. The temples for their worship 
were erected in the plain on the east side of the mountain. 
Thus the orientation of the ancient tombs was preserved, 
although a long distance separated the grave from the 
sanctuary. The magnificent unfinished temple of Queen 
Hatshepsut at Der el-Bahri opposite Thebes, the finest 
of all the cliff-temples of Egypt, was built for the post- 
humous cult of the Queen and of her father. The walls 
were decorated with scenes from the life and the expedi- 
tions of the only female Pharaoh. 54 All the temples 
that cover the plain on the west side of the river opposite 
Thebes (Luxor) were designed for the worship of de- 
ceased monarchs of the XVIIIth, XlXth, and XXth 
dynasties. They are as splendid as any of the temples 
that were erected for the gods. 

/. Mourning for the Dead. — The rites of embalm- 
ment and of burial were attended with an elaborate ritual 
of mourning. Thus the Tale of Sinuhe, a noble who 
flourished under Amenemhat I of the Xllth dynasty, 
narrates: 

"In year thirty, second month of first season, seventh day, 
Departed the god (Pharaoh) into his horizon, 
The King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Sehetepibre. 
He ascended to heaven, joined with the sun; 
The divine limbs were mingled with him that begat him. 
In the court silence. . . . 
The great double doors were closed, 
The court sat in mourning, 
The people bowed down in silence." 

in the case of Kheti, a noble under the Xth dynasty, 
it is recorded after his death: "Then mourned the king 
himself, all Middle Egypt, and the Northland." 56 Gen. 
50:3, 10 narrate that the Egyptians mourned seventy 

54 See Baedeker, Egypt, 5 pp. 278-283. 
65 Breasted, Records, i. 491, 
68 Ibid., i. 414. 



196 SPIRITISM v 

days for Jacob after his death, and seven days at the time 
of his burial. 

An important part of the mourning was the recitation 
of formal laments. The model for these was the la- 
ment of Isis over Osiris, a late form of which has come 
down to us. Part of this reads as follows: "Come to 
thy house, come to thy house, O god On ! Come to thy 
house, thou who hast no enemies! O beautiful stripling, 
come to thy house that thou mayest see me ! I am thy 
sister whom thou lovest; thou shalt not abandon me. O 
beauteous youth, come to thy house. ... I see thee not 
and my heart fears for thee, mine eyes long for thee. . . . 
Come to her who loves thee, who loves thee, Wennofre, 
thou blessed one ! Come to thy sister, come to thy wife, 
thy wife, thou whose heart is still ! Come to her who is 
mistress of thy house ! I am thy sister, born of the same 
mother, thou shalt not be far from me. Gods and men 
turn their faces toward thee, and together they bewail 
thee. ... I call to thee and weep, so that it is heard 
even to heaven, but thou dost not hear my voice, and 
yet I am thy sister whom thou lovedst upon earth ! Thou 
lovedst none besides me, my brother, my brother!" 57 

A lament sung by the Theban women as the boat 
floated across the Nile bearing the mummy to its last rest- 
ing-place in the great necropolis called "Place of Beauty" 
ran as follows : 

"Turn to the West, to the Land of the Righteous! 
The wives in the boat weep bitterly, bitterly. 
In peace, in peace to the West, 
O praised one, come in peace! 
When the day shall dawn to Eternity, 
Then shall we see thee again." 58 

As in other Oriental lands, the family was assisted in 
these laments by professional mourning men and mourn- 
ing women. 59 

57 Erman, Religion, p. 33. 

58 Erman, Life in Ancient Egypt, p. 320. 
"Breasted, Records, i. 370. 



v SPIRITISM IN EGYPT 197 

m. Sacrifice to the Dead. — The gifts of food placed 
in the grave could not be expected to last the dead man 
forever, consequently, his descendants were expected to 
bring additional offerings regularly. The tomb-inscrip- 
tions frequently pray that the deceased may not be left 
without the necessities of life. Thus Nezemib of the 
period of the Vth dynasty intreats: u O ye living who 
are still upon earth, who pass by this tomb; let water be 
poured out for me, for I was a master of secret things. 
Let a mortuary offering of that which is with you come 
forth for me, for I was one beloved of the people. Never 
was I beaten in the presence of any official since my birth; 
never did I take the property of any man by violence ; but 
I was a doer of that which pleased all men." 60 

Pious descendants record that they fulfilled these filial 
obligations. Thus the son of a royal favourite of the 
IVth dynasty says : "Her eldest son, the field-judge, 
built (this chapel) for her to make mortuary offerings to 
her therein." 61 Ahmose, the founder of the XVIIIth 
dynasty, is represented as saying: "It is I who have 
remembered the mother of my mother, and the mother 
of my father, great king's-wife and king's-mother, 
Tetisheri, triumphant. Although she has already a tomb 
and a mortuary chapel on the soil of Thebes and Abydos, 
I have said this to thee, that my majesty has desired to 
have made for her also a pyramid and a house in Tazeser, 
as a monumental donation of my majesty. Its lake shall 
be dug, its trees shall be planted, its offerings shall be 
founded, equipped with people, endowed with land, 
presented with herds, mortuary priests and ritual priests 
having their duties, every man knowing his stipula- 
tion. . . . Never did former kings the like of it for 
their mothers." 62 

As a rule, however, the Egyptians could not be trusted 
to show the filial piety that was displayed by the Chinese 

80 Breasted, Records, i. 279. 

81 Ibid., i. 185. 

93 Ibid., ii. 36-37. 



198 SPIRITISM v 

in keeping up the regular sacrifices to the dead; accord- 
ingly, the wealthy were in the habit of leaving endow- 
ments for the maintenance of their mortuary offerings 
as well as for the upkeep of their tombs. This practice 
began in the Old Kingdom, and lasted down to the latest 
times. 63 One of the most interesting cases is that of 
Hepzefi, Count of Siut, under Sesostris I of the Xllth 
tercalary days"; according to the second contract, "white 
the priests of Siut to provide offerings to his departed 
spirit. According to the first contract, he is to receive 
"a white loaf per individual priest for his statue which 
is in the temple of Anubis, on the first of the five in- 
tercalary days" according to the second contract, "white 
bread from each of them for his statue which is in charge 
of the mortuary priest, on New Year's Day"; according 
to the third contract, "there shall be given to him bread 
and beer in the first month of the first season, on the 
eighteenth day, the day of the Wag-feast, namely, twenty- 
two jars of beer, two thousand two hundred flat loaves, 
and fifty-five white loaves" ; according to the fourth con- 
tract, "a white loaf per each individual among them for 
his statue which is in the temple, in the first month of 
the first season, on the eighteenth day, the day of the 
Wag-feast"; according to the fifth contract, "three wicks 
with which the fire is kindled for the god"; according to 
the sixth contract, "the roast of meat which is due upon 
the altar, which is placed upon the oblation-table, for 
every bull which is slaughtered in the temple; and one jar 
for every jar of beer, every day of a procession, which 
shall be due every future superior prophet"; according to 
the seventh contract, "three wicks due to him, with which 
the fire is kindled in the temple of Anubis, on New Year's 
Eve, New Year's Day, and the night of the Wag-feast." 
The remaining contracts are similar in contents. 64 

Among the articles of food offered to the dead the 

83 See above, p. 167f. 

•* Breasted, Records, i. 535 sq. 



v SPIRITISM IN EGYPT 199 

inscriptions mention: grain, bread and cakes of various 
materials and sizes, fruit of all sorts, honey, wild, and 
domestic cattle, sheep, goats, and game of wild animals, 
geese and other birds and fish. As libations we find 
water, milk, beer and wine. Incense also was offered to 
the dead, as to the gods. The reliefs that accompany the 
inscriptions often depict the dead enjoying the dainties 
that are set before them. Thus the tomb of Nekonekh 
under the Vth dynasty represents him seated at a table, 
while eight mortuary priests serve him with viands. Evi- 
dently the ancient Egyptians had no intention of going 
hungry in the other world. 

The foregoing survey makes it evident that in all es- 
sential particulars the beliefs of the Egyptians in regard 
to disembodied spirits were identical with those of the 
Chinese and of other early races. 



CHAPTER VI 

SPIRITISM AMONG THE EARLY SEMITES 

In the Book of Genesis the Hebrews first appear as a 
nomadic race entering Canaan from the east. From the 
period prior to this migration no records or traditions 
have come down to us; nevertheless by means of the sci- 
ences of comparative philology and comparative religion 
it is possible to gain considerable information concerning 
the theology of that remote age. In language, customs 
and beliefs the Hebrews were closely akin to the Canaan- 
ites, Aramaeans, Assyrians, Babylonians, Arabs, Ethiop- 
ians and other races that are grouped by ethnologists 
under the general name of "Semitic." 1 Ideas and in- 
stitutions that are found among all these races must have 
been possessed by their forefathers in the primitive home 
in the Arabian desert, where they dwelt together before 
their dispersion. Applying this comparative method of 
research, we may sketch in outline the main features of 
early Semitic belief concerning the future life. 

a. The Conception of Spirits. — The primitive Semitic 
conception of spirits was in all its main features similar 
to that of other primitive races throughout the world. 
Man was believed to consist of two elements, 'flesh,' 
(Heb. basar) and 'breath' (Heb. Phoen. nefesh, Arab, 
nafs, Eth. nafas, Syr. nafsha, Bab. Ass. napishtu) . The 
'breath' was the seat of knowledge, appetite, emotion, 
and activity; accordingly it was identical with the person. 
In all the Semitic dialects nafshi, 'my breath,' means 
'myself.' The 'breath' was supposed to inhere in the 

1 From Sem, the Greek and Latin form of Shem, the assumed ancestor of these 
peoples in Gen. 10:21-31. 

200 



vi SPIRITISM AMONG EARLY SEMITES 201 

blood, because it was observed that when the blood was 
shed life went out of a man. The ancient Arabs spoke 
of the nafs as flowing out of a man who was dying of 
wounds, and all the Semites were afraid to eat the blood 
of slaughtered animals for fear that they might be pos- 
sessed by the spirits of these animals. The heart, as the 
chief receptacle of blood in the body, was also regarded 
as the abode of the 'breath' and as the centre of its 
intellectual faculties. At death the 'breath' with all its 
powers went out of a man. 

Another word for 'spirit' found in several of the 
Semitic languages is ruh (Heb. ruah, Aram, ruha) 
'wind.' In Arabic this word has only the meaning 
'wind,' except in late usage borrowed from the Syriac, 
and it is not found in Assyro-Babylonian ; accordingly, 
it is probably not such a primitive word for 'spirit' as 
nefesh, although it must have been in use before the 
separation of the Hebraeo-Canaanite and the Aramaean 
branches from the parent Semitic stock. It is practically 
a synonym of nefesh, but it emphasizes more the energy 
of the soul. 

b. Existence of Spirits After Death. — Among the 
Semites belief in the continued existence of the disem- 
bodied nefesh or ruah existed from the earliest times. 
The ancient tombs at Nippur and Tello in Babylonia 
contain the usual offerings to the dead. 2 In the oldest 
tombs of Palestine 3 the dead were commonly depos- 
ited in the contracted position of an unborn child, in 
witness to the faith that death was birth into another 
life; and with them were placed offerings of food and of 
other useful articles. In Babylonian the napishtu, or 
'breath' is said to "go out" of a man, but the disem- 
bodied spirit is not called napishtu, as in the other 
Semitic dialects, but etimmu (not ekimmu as the name 

2 Peters, Nippur, II. 173; Maspero, The Dawn of Civilisation, p. 686; Jastrow, 
Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, pp. 598f. 

3 Palestine Exploration Fund, Quarterly Statement, 1902, pp. 35 Iff.; 1903, 

pp. 14ff. 



202 SPIRITISM vi 

was formerly read) , or its Sumerian equivalent utukku. 4 
In Rabbinical writings the Hebrew equivalent of etimmu 
is ruah. 

The statement of the Qur'an (Sura xxxix. 43) "Allah 
takes the souls to himself when they die, and those who 
have not died (He takes) in their sleep," shows that the 
ancient Arabs believed that the soul left the body in 
sleep, and that death differed from sleep only in the fact 
that the soul failed to return to its former residence. 
In some passages of the Qur y an Muhammad speaks as 
if the heathen Arabs believed that the soul perished with 
the body, but this is exaggeration due to the contrast 
between the lower ideas of the heathen and his own 
higher doctrine of immortality. By all the Arabs the 
nafs or 'breath' was supposed to live on; and nafs, or 
in later usage ruh, 'wind,' was the common name for 
'ghost.' According to Wellhausen 5 the Jinn, or 'hidden 
beings' of the Arabs, who were for the most part nature- 
spirits, also included spirits of the dead. Like other 
primitive peoples, the pre-Muhammadan Arabs buried 
the dead with care, provided for their needs in the other 
world, invoked their assistance, and even swore by their 
life. 6 

c. Powers Retained by Spirits of the Dead. — Spirits 
of the dead were believed to retain in large measure their 
former intellectual powers. Those who had led unhappy 
lives on earth or who had come to untimely ends grieved 
over their misfortunes in the other world and returned 
to take their revenge upon the living. 

d. Powers Gained by Spirits of the Dead. — The 
Semites also believed in the acquisition of new and super- 
human powers by disembodied spirits. They could move 
at will from place to place. As a Babylonian exorcism 
says: 

4 Thompson, The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia, i. p. xxiv. 
8 Reste arabischen Heidentums, 2 pp. 148ff. 

6 Wellhausen, op. cit., p. 185; Noldeke, in Hastings, Encyclopedia of Religion, 
art. "Arabs," p. 672. 



vi SPIRITISM AMONG EARLY SEMITES 203 

"The highest walls, the thickest walls, like a flood they pass 
From house to house they break through. 
No door can shut them out, no bolt can turn them back. 
Through the door like a snake they glide, 
Through the hinge like the wind they blow." 7 

They could take possession of inanimate objects and 
use these as they would their own bodies. Among the 
Arabs a heap of stones, or a standing stone (nusb = Heb. 
massebd), was placed upon the grave, and was believed 
to be occupied by the dead just as really as similar stones 
in sanctuaries were occupied by the gods. 8 In Nabataean, 
Palmyrene, and Aramaic nefesh, 'soul,' means also 
'tombstone. ' The Babylonians provided statues at the 
entrances to temples and houses as residences for the 
ghosts. 9 Among the Arabs ghosts and Jinn frequently 
appeared in the forms of beasts and birds, particularly 
of serpents and owls. 10 The same was true in Baby- 
lonia. 11 

Spirits could also take possession of living men. The 
Arabs believed that while the soul was absent in sleep 
the Jinn could easily occupy its body. They caused all 
manner of diseases and insanity. The name for 'insane' 
was majntln, i. e., 'possessed by Jinn.' They were also 
the cause of remarkable ability and prophetic inspira- 
tion. 12 The spirit that revealed himself to a medium was 
known as rdi y the same word as the Hebrew ro'eh, 
'seer.' The Babylonians believed that the troubled 
ghost of the unburied, or of one who had died an un- 
natural death, might enter the body of any person with 
whom it had established chance relations in life, and 
might then cause disease and pain. 13 It could be driven 
out only by powerful incantations in the name of the 

7 Thompson, Devils and Evil Spirits, 1. 53. 
"Wellhausen, Reste, pp. 180, 184. 

9 Jastrow, Die Religion Bab., p. 281; see al9o the representations in Thompson, 
Devils, I, frontispiece, PL II; and Rogers, The Religion of Babylonia, p. 147. 

10 Wellhausen, Reste, pp. 152, 157, 185. 

11 Thompson, Devils, i. pp. L, 51; Jastrow, Die Rel. Bab., p. 281. 

12 Wellhausen, Reste* pp. 155-168. 

13 Thompson, Devils, I, xxxiv. 



2o 4 SPIRITISM vi 

great gods, and by threats that it should be deprived of 
food and drink. 

A Babylonian exorcism mentions the following classes 
of troubled ghosts : — 

"Whether thou art a ghost that hath gone forth from the earth, 
Or a phantom of night that hath no couch, 
Or a woman (that hath died) a virgin, 
Or a man (that hath died) unmarried, 
Or one that lieth dead in the desert. 

• •••••• 

Or one that hath been torn from a date-palm, 

Or one that cometh through the waters in a boat, 

• •••••• 

Or a harlot (that hath died) whose body is sick, 

Or a woman (that hath died) in travail, 
Or a woman (that hath died) with a babe at the breast, 
Or a weeping woman (that hath died) with a babe at the 
breast." 14 

Among the Arabs the soul of a murdered man was 
believed to thirst for the blood of his slayer. If his 
clansmen did not speedily avenge him, he appeared in 
the form of an owl, crying, "Give me to drink." 15 

Among the Babylonians ghosts frequently appeared 
in houses and omens were drawn from these manifesta- 
tions. 16 In the Gilgamesh Epic (tablet xii) the ghost 
of Enkidu comes to Gilgamesh, talks with him, and 
answers his questions. Among the Arabs ghosts were 
more easily perceived by animals than by men (a wide- 
spread belief; cf. Balaam's ass, Num. 22:23), but they 
were also seen by men under favourable conditions. They 
spoke in whispers or in mysterious murmurs in the desert. 
Their voice was known as sada, 'echo.' When they 
were addressed by the living, they replied out of their 
graves. When a woman named Laila doubted whether 
her dead lover could answer her, as he had promised he 

14 Thompson, Devils and Evil Spirits, I. 39ff. 

15 Noldeke, in Hastings, Encyclopaedia of Religion, art. "Arabs," p. 672. 

16 Thompson, Devils and Evil Spirits, I. xxxv. 



vi SPIRITISM AMONG EARLY SEMITES 205 

would do, an owl flew out of his grave and struck her 
in the face. 17 

e. Powers Lost by Spirits of the Dead. — The ancient 
Semites agreed with other primitive peoples in thinking 
that with the loss of the body the soul lost many of its 
powers. Disembodied spirits were conceived as feeble, 
intangible beings, bereft of the sense-perceptions that 
belong to the physical organism. The names "breath," 
"wind," "shadow," "echo," that were applied to ghosts 
suggested their ethereal nature. In Babylonian incanta- 
tions they are described as "wind-gusts that come forth 
from the grave." "In heaven they are unknown, on 
earth they are not understood; they neither stand or sit, 
nor eat nor drink." "They are the roaming wind-blasts; 
no wife have they, no son do they beget. Sense they 
know not. They are as horses reared among the hills." 18 
In the Gilgamesh Epic the ghost of Enkidu issues "like 
a wind out of the follow in the earth." 19 

/. The Dwelling-Place of the Dead. — The ancient 
Semites believed that the disembodied spirit continued to 
maintain a relation with its dead body, so that the corpse, 
or the grave, continued to be the chief seat of its activity. 
In Babylonia the etimmn, or 'ghost,' is constantly 
spoken of as coming forth from the grave. Thus in an 
incantation we read: — 

"The gods which seize upon man have gone forth from the grave, 
The evil wind-blasts have gone forth from the grave, 
To demand the paying of rites and the pouring of libations, 
They have gone forth from the grave. 
All that is evil in their hosts like a whirlwind 
Hath gone forth from the grave." 20 

In Arabia the name hamd, 'skull,' applied to the 
departed indicates that they were associated with their 
mortal remains. Many of the Jinn live in graveyards 

17 Wellhausen, Reste, pp. 150f., 183. 

18 Thompson, Devils and Evil Spirits, I. xxix, 75. 

19 Gilgamesh Epic, tablet xii, col. iii; = Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek, VI, 263. 

20 Thompson, Devils and Evil Spirits, II, 131. 



206 SPIRITISM vi 

or in regions where all the inhabitants have died. They 
love decay and foul smells. 21 

Without burial the spirits of the dead could not rest. 
In the Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic (tablet xii, col. 6) 
the ghost of Enkidu says to Gilgamesh: "He whose 
corpse has been thrown out into the desert — thou hast 
seen, I have seen it — his spirit resteth not in the earth." 
Among the numerous classes of evil spirits in Babylonia 
none were more dreaded than ghosts of the unburied: — 

"He that lieth in a ditch ... he that is covered by no grave . . . 
He that lieth uncovered, whose head is uncovered with dust, 
The king's son that lieth in the desert, or in the ruins, 
The hero whom they have slain with the sword." 22 

By both Babylonians and Assyrians burial was refused 
to enemies, and their bodies were cast out to be devoured 
by beasts and birds. The graves of dead enemies also 
were often violated. In the stele of Eannatum (c. 2700 
B.C.) the corpses of enemies are depicted as being de- 
voured by vultures. Of the Babylonians who supported 
his brother Shamashshumukin in a revolt Ashurbanipal 
says: "I slew there those people. Their cut-up flesh I 
gave as food to dogs, swine, vultures, eagles, birds of 
heaven and fish of the sea." 23 After his conquest of 
Elam Ashurbanipal records: "The tombs of their kings, 
the former and the latter, who had not feared Ashur 
and Ishtar, my lords, and who had opposed the kings 
my fathers, I destroyed and wasted and let the sun behold 
them. Their bones I carried to Assyria. I allowed their 
spirits no rest. I deprived them of their food and their 
libations of water." 24 

Among the Arabs burial was a necessity, without 
which the soul could not rest. Cremation was regarded 
as no less dreadful than the burning of the living body. 

21 Wellhausen, Reste, pp. ISOf.; Doughty, Arabia Deserta I, 259, 448. 

22 Haupt, Akkadische und Sumerische Keilschrifttexte, p. 86. 
23 Annals of Ashurbanipal, IV, 738.; VII, 45. 

2 * Ibid., VI, 7 Off.; see Jeremias, Die babylonisch-assyrischen Vorstellungen von 
Leben nach dem Tode, pp. 46ff. 



vi SPIRITISM AMONG EARLY SEMITES 207 

Only the corpses of enemies were cast out to be de- 
voured. 25 Graves of friends were carefully covered with 
heavy stones so that they might not be entered by hyenas. 

In marked contrast to this conception of the connection 
of the disembodied spirit with its corpse is the belief 
found among the Babylonians and expressed in many 
parts of the Old Testament that the dead live together 
in a subterranean abode known as She 61. This idea is 
not found among the Arabs, nor among several other 
races allied to the Hebrews; it cannot therefore be primi- 
tive Semitic. Other races think of the soul either as 
remaining with the body, or as going to a realm beneath 
the earth, on a mountain top, beyond the ocean, or in 
the sky. This variety shows that the conception of a 
spirit-world is secondary, and that the primitive belief 
was that the soul remained in the neighbourhood of the 
body. This also was doubtless the original Semitic idea, 
and the doctrine of Sheol is a later development. 

g. General Conception of Death. — In their estimate 
of the worth of spirit-life the Semites did not rise above 
the general level of other primitive races. In pre- 
Muhammadan Arab poetry the thought is continually 
repeated that death is the end of happiness, therefore 
"Let us eat and drink for to-morrow we die." No 
consolation is derived from the belief that the soul con- 
tinues to exist and possesses superhuman powers. The 
only comfort offered is that death is the universal lot of 
men. In Babylonia long life was regarded as an evidence 
of the favour of the gods, and death as a sign that they 
had forsaken a man. It was dreaded as a fearful and 
inevitable disaster, and was known as "the day of dis- 
tress," or "the day that lets no one go." The lot of the 
dead was most unhappy. "Dust is their food, mud their 
victuals. They see not the light, they dwell in darkness 
They are clothed like birds with a covering of wings." 26 

31 Wellhausen, Reste, p. 177; Noldeke, Hastings, Encyclopedia of Religion, I, 672. 
"Descent of Ishtar, line 8. 



208 SPIRITISM vi 

When Gilgamesh appeals to the ghost of Enkidu to tell 
him what the other world is like, Enkidu at first refuses 
for fear that his friend cannot bear the terrible descrip- 
tion; and when at last he consents, he bids Gilgamesh 
prepare to weep over the things that he will hear. 27 

The great gods whom men loved and adored were 
gods of the upper world and of the living; their sway- 
did not extend into the dark abodes of the dead. They 
aided men against the ghosts and evil demons who sought 
to destroy them. When death came it was a sign that 
their favour was withdrawn, or that they were unable 
to help against the powers of darkness. The disembodied 
spirit passed out of their jurisdiction into that of divini- 
ties with whom in life it had established no friendly 
relations. Such a conception of immortality was quite as 
devoid of religious or ethical value as were the spiritistic 
beliefs of other primitive races. 

h. The Cult of the Dead. — The rites of mourning 
among the Semites were similar to those among other 
primitive peoples and bear witness to a similar cult of 
the dead. Among the ancient Arabs it was customary 
to strip one's self when mourning. Women exposed not 
only their faces and breasts, but sometimes their entire 
bodies. Messengers that brought tidings of death ap- 
peared naked or half-naked. 28 The custom had a re- 
ligious origin, since the Arabs used to make the circuit of 
the Ka'ba naked, and even today perform it without 
shoes and in a simple loincloth. In Babylonian monu- 
ments of the earliest period the worshippers are depicted 
naked; in later times they wear a kilt. 29 Cutting one's 
flesh as a means of establishing a blood-covenant with 
the dead was common among the ancients. 30 Women 
also cut off their hair, and men sheared the head and the 
beard. The casting of dust upon the head or the body 

27 Gilgamesh Epic, tablet xii, col. 4. 

28 Wellhausen, Reste arabischen Heidentums, 2 pp. 177, 195. 

29 Jastrow, Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, p. 666. 
80 Wellhausen, Reste, p. 181. 



vi SPIRITISM AMONG EARLY SEMITES 209 

was another mourning custom. 31 Analogous was the 
habit of drinking water mixed with dust from the 
grave. 32 Fasting on the day of death, or for a longer 
period, was also a common practice. 

Burial was the universal Semitic custom; indeed, the 
word kabar, 'bury,' is common to all the Semitic lan- 
guages. By the ancient Arabs graves were surrounded 
with a hima f or sacred inclosure, and were provided with 
ansdb, or standing stones, like the sanctuaries of the gods. 
They were also asylums where criminals found refuge. 
At them all the rites of sacrifice went on that were usual 
in the worship of the gods. 33 

Among the Arabs the cooking-pot and dishes of the 
deceased were broken, and his camel was lamed and 
tethered near the grave to die of starvation. About 
1 100 A.D. certain Arabs of Northern Yemen honoured 
a dead chief by breaking a thousand swords and three 
hundred bows and by laming seventy horses. Not merely 
at the time of burial, but also subsequently camels were 
slain. An early poet laments that he cannot sacrifice his 
camel to his friend because it is the only one he possesses. 
Besides blood, libations of water and of milk were poured 
upon graves, and the wish was expressed that much rain 
might fall upon them. In some parts of Arabia fragrant 
wood was burned as incense. These customs have lasted 
down to the present day both among the Bedawin and 
among the Arabs of Syria. 34 

Prayer to the dead is well attested among the ancient 
Semites. Among the Arabs the women broke out in a 
shrill wail when any member of the family died, and 
continued this until the period of mourning was over. 
This was accompanied with frequent ejaculation of the 

31 Wellhausen, Reste, 2 p. 177. 

32 Ibid., p. 163; Jastrow, "Dust and Ashes as Symbols of Mourning," Jour. Am. 
Orient. Soc, XX, 133f. 

83 Wellhausen, Reste, 2 p. 184. 

34 Ibid., pp. 177-84; Noldeke, Hastings, Encyclopedia of Religion and 

Ethics, I, 672; Burckhardt, Beduinen und Wahaby, pp. 84f. ; Doughty, Arabia 

Deserta, I, 240, 354, 442, 450 ff. ; Curtiss, Ursemitische Religion, chap. xix. 



210 SPIRITISM vi 

name of the deceased, and with the entreaty, u Be not 
far away!" Poets also composed extended laments ad- 
dressed to the dead. The belief that spirits of the dead 
could be called up by magic arts to assist the living, or 
to reveal the future, was held by the Semites in common 
with other ancient peoples. The Arab magician had his 
tdbVy or 'follower,' i.e., his familiar spirit. In Baby- 
lonia "raiser of the departed spirit" was the standing 
title of the necromancer. In the Gilgamesh Epic (tablet 
xii, col. 3) we have an account of how Gilgamesh raised 
the ghost of Enkidu and held converse with him. 



CHAPTER VII 

SPIRITISM IN BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 

About 5000 B.C. a race appeared in Babylonia whose 
remains survived in consequence of the fact that it built 
its towns on artificial mounds raised above the level of 
the river floods. This race is called Sumerian because 
its earliest monuments have been found in Sumer, the 
ancient name for Southern Babylonia. In the lowest 
levels of the mounds inscriptions have been discovered 
in an extremely primitive character that approximates 
picture-writing. In these characters we see the beginning 
of the Babylonian and Assyrian cuneiform, or wedge- 
writing, that remained in use almost down to the begin- 
ning of the Christian era. About 3500 B.C. the invasion 
of Babylonia by the Semites began. In process of time 
the Sumerians were conquered, and their language gave 
place to a dialect akin to Hebrew, but their civilization 
left an indelible impression upon the conquering Semites. 
Sumerian remained the sacred language of Babylonia, 
just as Latin remained the sacred language of the Roman 
Church; and an immense body of Sumerian literature was 
transmitted by the priests down almost to the beginning 
of our era. It is certain that none of this material was 
invented by the Semites, but that it was merely inherited 
from their Sumerian predecessors. From this literature, 
contained chiefly in tablets discovered in the library of 
the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (626 B.C.), it is possible 
to derive a full and accurate conception of Sumerian 
beliefs in regard to the future life. 

a. Activity of the Dead. — Unlike China, where an- 
cestors were believed to bless their descendants and re- 

211 



212 SPIRITISM vii 

ward their filial piety, in Babylonia and Assyria the 
activity of spirits of the dead was entirely maleficent. 
Nowhere are they said to bless and help men, nowhere 
are they invoked for aid. They come forth from the 
grave to kill and to destroy. The best that can be hoped 
of them is that they will be placated by the offerings made 
at their tombs, will remain at rest, and will refrain from 
harm. Positive good is never expected from them. Good 
things come from the gods, who are the protectors of men 
against the depredations of the ghosts. Prayers, there- 
fore, are addressed only to the gods, ghosts are appeased 
or are exorcised. 1 

The Sumerians, or primitive Babylonians, believed that 
all disease was caused by the obsession of malignant 
spirits that entered into the bodies of men. Three classes 
of evil spirits were recognized, first, ghosts of those who 
had died unnatural deaths, or had remained unburied; 
second, vampires that were half-human and half-demon; 
third, fiends who were of the same nature as the gods. 
These are all enumerated at the beginning of a hymn to 
the sun-god: 

"He on whom an evil Spirit hath rushed, 
He whom an evil Demon hath enveloped in his bed, 
He whom an evil Ghost hath cast down in the night, 
He whom a great Devil hath smitten, 
He whose limbs an evil God hath racked ( ?), 
He — the hair of whose body an evil Fiend hath set on end, 
He whom ... a Hag-demon hath seized, 
He whom a Ghoul hath cast down, 
He whom a Robber-sprite hath afflicted, 

He whom the Handmaid of the Night-Phantom hath wedded, 
The man with whom the Handmaid of the Night-Phantom 
hath had union." 2 

1 See L. W. King, Babylonian Magic and Sorcery, 1896; R. C. Thompson, The 
Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia, 1913; S. Langdon, Babylonian Magic, 1914; 

E. Kuchler, Beitrage zur Kentniss der Assyrisch-Babylonischen Medizin, 1904; 

F. von Oefele, numerous articles on Keilschriftmedizin; M. Jastrow, "The Medi- 
cine of the Babylonians and Assyrians," Proceedings of the Royal Society of 
Medicine, March, 1914. 

a Thompson, I. p. xxvii. 



vii IN BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 213 

Of these various demons an incantation says : 

' 'Through the gloomy street by night they roam, 
Smiting sheepfold and cattle-pen; 
Shutting up the land as with door and bolt. 
Rending in pieces on high, bringing destruction below, 
They are the Children of the Underworld. 
Loudly roaring above, gibbering below, 
They are the bitter venom of the gods. 
They are the great storms directed from Heaven, 
They are the owls which hoot over a city. 
Knowing no care, they grind the land like corn, 
Knowing no mercy, they rage against mankind, 
They spill their blood like rain, 
Devouring their flesh and sucking their veins. 

• ••••• 

They are demons full of violence, 
Ceaselessly devouring blood." 3 

Different demons were the causes of different diseases. 
Ahhazu caused liver troubles; Ashakku, tuberculosis; 
Ti'u, headache; Labartu, the death of women or children 
in child-birth. One of the most curious tablets that has 
come down to us is the description of the way in which 
a devil known as "the toothache worm" obtained from 
the Creator permission to live in the teeth of men. It 
reads as follows: — 

"After Anu had created the Heavens, 
The Heavens created the Earth, 
The Earth created the Rivers, 
The Rivers created the Canals, 
The Canals created the Marshes, 
The Marshes created the Worm. 
Came the Worm (and) wept before Shamash, 
Before Ea came her tears: — 
'What wilt thou give me for food, 
What wilt thou give me for my devouring?' 
'I will give thee dried bones, 
(And) scented . . . -wood.' 
'What are these dried bones to me, 
And scented . . . -wood! 

8 Thompson, I. p. xlvi. 



2i 4 SPIRITISM vn 

Let me drink among the teeth, 

And set me on the gums; 

That I may devour the blood of the teeth 

And of their gums destroy the strength; 

Then shall I hold the bolt of the door.' " 4 

When, as here, disease is caused by a specific being that 
takes up its abode in a particular tissue of the human 
body, we do not seem to be far away from the modern 
germ-theory of disease. 

The ancient Sumerians believed that at certain times, 
or in certain places, one was peculiarly in danger of being 
entered by the demons. Contact with a dead body, or 
wearing the clothes of the dead, or intimate association 
with a man during the days that preceded his death, 
rendered one liable to obsession by his ghost. 

"Whether thou art a ghost that hath come from the earth, 
Or a phantom of night that hath no couch, 
Or whether thou be one with whom on a day [I have eaten], 
Or with whom on a day [I have drunk], 
Or with whom on a day I have anointed myself, 
Or with whom on a day I have clothed myself, 
Or whether thou be one with whom I have entered and drunk, 
Or with whom I have entered and anointed myself, 
Or with whom I have entered and clothed myself, 
Or whether thou be one with whom I have eaten food when I 

was hungry, 
Or with whom I have drunk water when I was thirsty." 5 

Here there seems to be knowledge of the danger of con- 
tagious diseases. It was also observed that devils dwelt 
most frequently in places that had been abandoned by 
men: 

"O evil Spirit, get thee forth to distant places, 
O evil Demon, hie thee unto the ruins, 
Where thou standest is forbidden ground, 
A ruined, desolate house is thy home." 6 

* Thompson, II. p. 161. 
5 Ibid., I. pp. 39, 43. 
•Ibid., p. 139. 



vii IN BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 215 

Such spots were doubtless the seats of malaria, or of 
other germ diseases, and this was the reason why they 
had been forsaken by their original inhabitants. 

b. The Abode of the Dead. — The Sumerian popu- 
lation of Babylonia had already reached a high stage of 
civilization before the Semites arrived on the scene. 
Primitive conceptions of the dead as resting with their 
kinsmen in the family grave the Sumerians had outgrown. 
They conceived of the shades as dwelling together in a 
mighty realm, and as socially organized after the manner 
of an ancient Babylonian kingdom. 7 

For this realm the usual Sumerian name is Aralu, of 
which the etymology is unknown. Its common Hebrew 
name is Sheol, of which also the meaning is uncertain. 
Jeremias and Jastrow think that Sheol appears in Baby- 
lonian as Shu'dlu, but this is denied by Jensen and 
Zimmern. Another Sumerian name is "Land of the 
Dead," or "Death." Still another name is "Earth." 
Thus in the epic fragment known as Ishtars Descent to 
Hades (rev. line 5) we read, "Ishtar has gone down to 
the Earth, and has not come up." 8 In the Gilgamesh 
Epic (XII, iv, 1) Gilgamesh asks Enkidu after "the law 
of the Earth," meaning as the sequel shows, the nature of 
the other world. 9 Closely similar in meaning is the 
Sumerian word Kigal, 'Great Beneath,' or 'Under- 
world,' which passes over into Semitic as Kigallu. Since 
this region is regarded as a vast cavern, it is called Nakbu, 
'the Hollow,' 10 or 'the Hole of the Earth.' " 

From these names it is evident that the ancient 
Babylonians regarded Sheol as situated in the depths of 

7 On the Babylonion conception of Hades see Jeremias, Die babylonisch- 
assyrischen Vorstellungen vom Leben nach dern Tode (1887); Jensen, Die Kos- 
mologie der Babylonier (1890); Jeremias, "Holle und Paradies bei den Baby- 
loniern," in Das Alte Orient, 1900, Part 3; Zimmern, in Schrader's Keilinschriften 
und das Alte Testament* (1903); Warren, The Earliest Cosmogonies (1909). 

8 Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek, VI. 87. 
Ibid., 263. 

10 S. A. Smith, Miscellaneous Texts, 16. 

11 Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek, VI. 262. 



216 SPIRITISM vii 

the earth. One is said to "go down" to Aralu, or to 
"come up" from it. The gods of Aralu are also the gods 
who cause vegetation to spring out of the ground. When 
the Babylonian kings wish to describe the depth to which 
they carried the substructures of their mighty edifices, 
they say that they laid the foundations "on the breast 
of Aralu" or "of Kigallu." The tower-temples of an- 
cient Babylonia were regarded as counterparts of E-kur, 
'the mountain house' or inhabited earth, and beneath 
these the dead were buried, to correspond with the way 
in which the shades dwelt beneath the abode of the 
living. 12 In the inscriptions the tops of these tower- 
temples are said to be as high as the mountains, and their 
bases as low as the Underworld. From these expressions 
it appears that the Babylonians regarded Sheol as a vast 
cavern under the ground, the subterranean counterpart 
of the space included between the earth and the celestial 
dome of the "firmament." 

Sheol could be entered directly through a gap in the 
earth, but such a route was unusual. Ordinarily it was 
entered through a gate in the western horizon. The 
myths of the descent of Ishtar (Venus) and other astral 
deities indicate that the road to the Underworld was 
that followed by the celestial bodies. The west was the 
region of darkness and death, as the east was the region 
of light and life. A man haunted by a ghost prays, "Unto 
the setting of the sun may he go." 13 

The habitable earth was regarded as an island lying 
in the midst of the ocean; consequently, in order to reach 
the entrance of Sheol at the setting of the sun, it was 
necessary to cross the sea. In the Gilgamesh Epic, 
Gilgamesh, who has set out to seek his ancestor 
Ut(Pir Sit?)-napishtim, after crossing the Syrian desert 
and passing the mountains of Lebanon, reaches the shore 
of the Mediterranean, and inquires of a goddess how he 

12 Hilprecht, Explorations in Bible Lands, 465. 

13 King, Babylonian Magic and Sorcery, p. 119, line 19. 



vii IN BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 217 

may cross the sea. She replies : "There has never been 
any ford, Gilgamesh, and no one who since the days of 
yore has arrived here has ever crossed over the sea. The 
sun, the hero, has crossed over the sea, but except the 
sun, who has crossed? Hard is the passage, difficult the 
way, and deep are the Waters of Death that lie before it. 
Where, Gilgamesh, wilt thou go over the sea? When 
thou comest to the Waters of Death, what wilt thou do?" 
Presently, however, she shows Gilgamesh where he may 
find a ferryman who will carry him over the waters. 
Together they make a forty-five days' journey to the 
western end of the Mediterranean. Then they enter 
upon the "Waters of Death," or the ocean beyond the 
straits of Gibraltar. After terrible perils they succeed 
in passing this, and land in the farthest west on the shore 
where Ut-napishtim dwells. 14 This ferry over the Baby- 
lonian Styx is alluded to also in an incantation, where 
the priest says, "I have stopped the ferry and barricaded 
the dock, and have thus prevented the bewitching of the 
whole world," i.e., I have prevented the spirits of the 
dead from coming back across the ocean to molest men. 15 
Because of this necessity of crossing the "Waters of 
Death" the Babylonian Sheol received the epithets mat- 
nabalkattu, 'land of crossing over,' and irsitu ruktu, 
'distant land.' In order to reach this land spirits of the 
dead assumed the form of birds and flew to their desti- 
nation. In Ishtar's Descent (obv. 10) we read of the 
shades, "They are clothed like a bird in a garment of 
feathers." 16 

For the ancient Babylonians there were seven heavens 
presided over by the sun, moon, and the five planets. 
There were also seven stages of the tower-temple of the 
earth. In like manner Aralu was conceived as containing 
seven divisions separated by walls. These walls were 
pierced by seven gates, which had to be passed in suc- 

14 Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek, VI. 217-23; Jensen, Gilgamesch Epos, 28-33. 

15 Jeremias, H'olle und Parodies, 15. 

16 See p. 95; Weicker, Der Seelenvogel in der alien Litteratur und Kunst (1907). 



218 , SPIRITISM i vii 

cession by the goddess Ishtar before she reached the 
lowest depth (Ishtar's Descent, obv. 37-62). These 
gates were fastened with bars, and there was a porter 
who opened them to newcomers. 

Sheol was primarily a cosmological conception, and 
had nothing to do with the grave as the abode of de- 
parted spirits, but the Babylonians were unable to keep 
the two ideas apart. The result was that Sheol was 
pictured as a vast tomb in which all individual tombs 
were included. The same ideogram was used both for 
grave and for Aralu. In the incantations the ghosts are 
said interchangeably to come forth out of the grave and 
out of Aralu. Everything that the heart delights in on 
earth is eaten by worms in the Underworld. 17 Hence the 
conception that Sheol is dark (in spite of the fact that 
the sun goes down into it). Thus in Babylonian one of 
its epithets is "dark dwelling." In Ishtar' s Descent (obv. 
7) it is called "the house where he who enters is deprived 
of light," and in line 10 it is said, "they see not the 
light, they dwell in darkness." 18 For the same reason 
Sheol is conceived as a place of dust. In Ishtar's De- 
scent 19 it is said, "Dust is their food, clay their nourish- 
ment. . . . Over door and bar dust is strewn." 20 

The Babylonian Sheol is under the rule of the god 
Nergal or Irkalla (a personification of Irkallu, 'great 
city,' one of the names of Aralu), and his wife Eresh- 
kigal, 'mistress of the Underworld.' In their service 
stand Namtaru, the death-demon, and a host of evil 
spirits who roam over the earth, afflicting men with all 
sorts of diseases and seeking to win new subjects for 
their masters. To the attacks of these demons man 
sooner or later succumbs. "He who at eventide is alive, 
at daybreak is dead." "The day of death is unknown," 

17 Gilgamesh Epic, XII. iv. 7£. 

18 Cf. Gilgamesh Epic, VII. iv. 35. 

19 Obv. 9, 11. 

80 Cf. Gilgamesh Epic, XII. iv. 10. 



vil IN BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 219 

but none the less it is certain; for it is "the day that lets 
no one go." 

Two instances are known in Babylonian literature of 
persons who escaped death, and were translated to the 
abode of the gods. Ut(Sit? Pir?)-napishtim, the Baby- 
lonian Noah, after narrating the story of the Flood to 
Gilgamesh, concludes: "Bel went up into the ship, 
grasped my hands, and led me out, led out my wife also, 
and caused her to kneel down at my side. He touched 
our shoulders, stood between us, and blessed us, saying, 
'Formerly Ut-napishtim was a man, now shall Ut-napish- 
tim and his wife be like gods, and Ut-napishtim shall 
dwell afar at the mouth of the streams.' " 21 Adapa just 
missed immortality by declining the bread and the water 
of life, 22 which shows that it was considered possible 
for men to escape death. Such cases, however, were the 
rare exception. 

Babylonian theology knows of a distinction in the fates 
of those who enter Aralu. One "rests in his chamber 
and drinks clean water"; another "eats what is left in 
the pot, the remnants of food that are cast out into the 
street." 23 When Ishtar incurs the wrath of Ereshkigal, 
the queen of the Underworld, Ereshkigal bids her ser- 
vant Namtaru : "Shut her in my palace, loose upon her 
sixty diseases." 24 The Gilgamesh Epic 25 seems to speak 
of a judgment in the other world: "After the Watch- 
demon and the Lock-demon have greeted a man, the 
Anunnaki, the great gods, assemble themselves; Mam- 
metu, who fixes fate, determines with them his fate; they 
establish death and life." 

On this basis, Jeremias and Delitzsch 26 found the 
theory that the Babylonians distinguished a Paradise and 
a Hell in the Underworld. The facts do not justify this 

21 Gilgamesh Epic, XI. 198-204. 

22 Adapa Myth, II. rev. 24-34. 

23 Gilgamesh Epic, XII. vi. 1-12. 
2i Ishtar' s Descent, obv. 68f. 

26 X. vi. 35-38. 

28 Babel und Bibel, 38ff. 



220 SPIRITISM vii 

view. In the passage which speaks of the different fates 
of the dead, the context shows that these fates depend, 
not upon moral distinctions, but upon the manner of 
burial. The one who "rests in his chamber and drinks 
clean water" is he who has enjoyed the honourable in- 
terment of a hero. The one who eats refuse is he "whose 
corpse has been cast out upon the field, whose ghost has 
no one to care for him." This is nothing more than a 
survival of the primitive animistic belief that the repose 
of the spirit depends upon the proper burial of the body. 
The "clean water" is not the "water of life," but the 
libation poured by a son upon the grave. The judgment 
pronounced by Mammetu and the Anunnaki is not a 
judgment upon character, that determines eternal life or 
eternal death, but is merely a decision whether or no a 
man is to die. Through severe illness his soul is brought 
down to the very gates of Aralu, and is greeted by the 
watchman; then the gods decide whether he is to remain 
in the Underworld or is to return to life. This explains 
the following line, "But the days of death are not re- 
vealed." So, after it has been decreed that Ishtar is 
not to remain in Hades, the Anunnaki are assembled to 
pronounce her release, and to sprinkle her with the water 
of life that she may return to the upper world. 27 The 
distinction in Aralu is merely one of relative comfort, it 
is not a distinction of place. In numerous passages the 
dead of all ages and all degrees are described as dwelling 
together in one common habitation. Thus in an epic 
fragment belonging to the Gilgamesh cycle the ghost of 
Enkidu says : 

"In the house that I have entered, my friend, . . . crowns 
lie upon the ground. There dwell the wearers of crowns, who of 
old ruled the land, for whom Bel and Anu have appointed name 
and memory. Cold dishes are served up to them, and they drink 
water out of skins. In the house that I have entered, my friend, 
dwell Enu-priests and Lagaru-priests. There dwell enchanters 

27 Ishtar' s Descent, rev. 37 i. 



vii IN BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 221 

and magicians. There dwell the anointed priests of the great gods. 
There dwell the heroes Etana and Ner. There dwells the queen 
of the Underworld Ereshkigal. There dwells Belit-seri, the scribe- 
goddess of the lower world crouching before her." 28 

By the Babylonians Sheol was conceived as a land, a 
city, or a house, in which all classes of men dwelt together 
as on earth. Life went on much the same as in the upper 
world, only all was shadowy. This conception was simply 
a survival of primitive beliefs concerning the existence of 
the dead that were combined with the later doctrine of 
Sheol. 29 

When once a man had entered Sheol the Babylonians 
believed that it was impossible for him to return to life 
again. The Underworld was "the land of no return," 30 
or "the enduring dwelling." 31 Its watchman, the "Lur- 
ker of Nergal," does not release when once he has seized 
a man. 32 Speaking of his friend Enkidu, Gilgamesh says: 
"My friend whom I loved has become like clay . . . 
Shall I not also like him lay me down to rest, and not 
arise for evermore?" 33 This denial that the dead can 
return means only that they cannot return to life, not that 
they may not leave Sheol to haunt the living, or to re- 
spond to the summons of a medium. The ancient belief 
in ghosts and in necromancy continued alongside of the 
belief in Sheol. 34: 

Whether the Babylonians believed in the possibility of 
a resurrection is a disputed question. A number of gods, 
particularly Marduk, bear the title muballit mituti, 
'quickener of the dead.' In a hymn it is said, "He whose 
corpse has gone down to Aralu thou bringest back." 35 
On the strength of these passages it has been claimed 

28 Jeremias, Holle und Parodies, 16. 

29 See pp. 6, 104, 169. 

30 Ishtar's Descent, obv. 1, 6, 41. 

31 Ibid., rev. 31. 

32 Gilgamesh Epic, XII. iii. 18. 

33 Ibid., VIII. v. 36f. 

34 See pp. 212ff., 226-231. 

35 King, Babylonian Magic and Sorcery, No. 2, 22. 



222 SPIRITISM vii 

that the Babylonians believed in a resurrection, 36 but the 
evidence is insufficient. All that this language means is 
that the god in question raises up to life a man who is 
sick unto death. According to the primitive conception, 
the soul left the body in illness, or in unconsciousness, and 
drew near to the Underworld. For a time it was doubt- 
ful whether it would remain with the shades or return 
to earth. The god who prevented its final separation 
from its body was called "quickener of the dead," but 
that there could be any resurrection after the body had 
been buried and dissolution had set in there is no evi- 
dence ; in fact, this idea seems to be directly contrary to 
the statements just quoted that there is no return for one 
upon whom Mammetu and the Anunnaki have pronounced 
sentence of death, but only for one whose entrance to 
Aralu they postpone. The "water of life" that is guarded 
by the Anunnaki in Aralu does not serve to bring back the 
dead, but only to restore those who have gone down alive 
to Sheol. It is given to Asushunamir, the messenger of 
the gods, that he may return to heaven ; and is sprinkled 
on Ishtar that she may go back to the upper world. 37 
Gilgamesh is washed with it that he may be cleansed from 
his leprosy, 38 and Adapa has it offered to him that he may 
attain immortality. 39 In these cases the dead are not re- 
stored to life, but the living are prevented from dying. 
The "water of life" is the divine counterpart of the holy 
water with which the priest sprinkled the sick man to keep 
the death-demons from dragging him down to Aralu. In 
only one passage is the possibility of a real resurrection 
suggested. When Ishtar is refused admission to Aralu, 
she says to the porter : "If thou openest not thy gate and 
I come not in, I will break down the door, I will shatter 
the bolt, I will break through the threshold and remove 
the doors, I will bring up the dead, eating, living; the 

36 Jensen, Keilin<schrifiliche Bibliothek, VI. 480. 

37 Ishtar' s Descent, rev. 19, 34, 38. 

38 Gilgamesh Epic, XI. 254ff. 

39 Adapa Myth, II. rev. 26. 



vii IN BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 223 

dead shall be more numerous than the living." 40 This 
seems to refer to a restoration of the dead to life. From 
this it follows that the Babylonians regarded it as possi- 
ble for the great gods to empty Aralu, if they saw fit; but 
there is no evidence that they believed that this power 
would ever be exerted. 

c. Deification of the Dead. — Names for spirits of 
the dead in Babylonian and Assyrian texts are regularly 
preceded with the determinative for 'god,' Sumerian 
dingir, Semitic ilu, the same etymologically as the Hebrew 
word el, 'god.' This shows that they were regarded as 
belonging to the class of superhuman beings, or "powers," 
just as in 1 Samuel 28:13 the ghost of Samuel rising out 
of the earth is called "a god." In the incantations they 
are often called "evil gods." An Assyrian king calls 
them "princes, spirits of the earth, gods who inhabit 
the grave." 

The deification of dead kings in ancient Babylonia is 
peculiarly well attested. Some of these kings were 
already deified during their lives, and their worship 
naturally continued after their deaths. The first king 
of whom this is known with certainty is NaranvSin of 
the dynasty of Agade (c. 2750 B.C.) who had the de- 
terminative for "god" prefixed to his name during his 
lifetime. The same was true of his successor Sargani- 
sharri (c. 2720 B.C.). The kings of the dynasty of Ur, 
namely Ur-Engur (2469 B.C.), Dungi (2451 B.C.), 
Pur-Sin (2393 B.C.), Gimil-Sin (2384 B.C.), and Ibi-Sin 
(2377 B.C.), were all canonized while alive, except 
Ur-Engur, the founder of the dynasty. The worship of 
these kings persisted under their successors, just like the 
worship of royal ancestors in China and in Egypt. In 
succeeding generations their names were used like names 
of gods to form proper names. Thus we find such names 
as Dungi-ilu, 'Dungi is god,' and Dungi-bani, 'Dungi 

40 Ishtar's Descent, obv. 16-20. 



224 SPIRITISM vii 

is my creator.' A large number of such names has been 
collected by Huber. 41 Dungi records that he built a 
temple for his father Ur-Engur, and a temple of Dungi 
is often mentioned. An officer of King Gimil-Sin records : 
"For Gimil-Sin, beloved of Enlil, the king, whom Enlil 
has chosen as his beloved, the mighty king, king of Ur, 
king of the four quarters of the world, his god; Lugal- 
ma-gur-ri, captain of the fortress, patesi of Ur, his 
servant, built his beloved temple." 42 

d. Burial of the Dead. — The excavations that have 
been carried on in the mounds of Babylonia and Assyria 
show that the inhabitants of these lands exercised the 
greatest care in the disposal of the corpses of the dead. 
The poor were buried in ordinary great water-jars, lined 
with bitumen, about a metre in height. The well-to-do 
were buried in clay coffins shaped like a baby's bath-tub, 
also about a metre in length. In order to insert them 
into these small receptacles the bodies were doubled 
together or were divided through the middle. The coffins 
were frequently covered with wood and were enclosed in 
a tomb of unburned brick. The bodies were dressed in 
their best garments, and were provided with weapons, 
armour of bronze and iron, jewelry, bronze mirrors, and 
other toilet articles. With them were placed vessels 
containing food, drink, and ointments. Many of these 
vessels were the choicest specimens of the potter's art. 
Seals, cones, cylinders, and other written records were 
also added occasionally. All these customs indicate that 
the dead had need in the other life of these objects with 
which they were supplied by the piety of the survivors. 43 
Herodotus, i. 198, narrates of the Babylonians: "They 

41 Die Personennamen in den Keilschrifturkunden, 1907. 

42 E. Thureau-Dangin, Sumerische und Akkadische Kbnigsinschriften, pp. 200, 
231, notes. For further information on this subject see S. A. Mercer, "Emperor- 
Worship in Babylonia," Jour Amer. Oriental Society, 1917, p. 360; S. Langdon, 
"The Cult of Deified Kings in Ancient Sumer," Museum Journal, Univ. of Penn., 
1917, p. 165; and Proceed. Soc. Bibl. Archeology, 1918. 

«See J. P. Peters, Nippur, ii. 214-234. 



vii IN BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 225 

bury their dead in honey, and have funeral lamentations 
like the Egyptians." 44 

e. Offerings to the Dead. — Among the Babylonians 
sacrifices and libations were offered periodically at tombs. 
The regular pouring out of libations of water was a duty 
that devolved upon the oldest son, or the legal heir, and 
that might not be neglected without incurring the wrath 
of the deceased. 45 In order to secure regular offerings 
to his spirit a Babylonian who had no son adopted one. 
Women also adopted daughters under similar circum- 
stances. Thus in a tablet of the Cassite period 46 we 
read: "Ina-Uruk-rishat . . . had no daughter, there- 
fore she adopted Etirtu. ... So long as Ina-Uruk- 
rishat lives Etirtu is to show her honour. If Ina-Uruk- 
rishat dies, then shall Etirtu, as though she were her 
daughter, make libations of water for her." An ancient 
bronze tablet represents a dead man lying on a bier, with 
priests surrounding him, and an altar for burning incense 
near his head. 47 

Sacrifices to dead kings of the dynasty of Ur are often 
mentioned in the temple accounting-tablets and receipts, 
which have been found in such vast numbers at Drehem 
and Jokah in southern Babylonia. One of these tablets, 
for instance, reads: "One dead sheep for god Dungi, 
one for god Pur-Sin, one for god Gimil-Sin, one for god 
Gimil-Sin a second time : offerings at the festival. Con- 
veyed on behalf of the house of the cattle. Month 
pap-u-e, year when god Ibi-Sin became king." 48 A king 
of Assyria, whose name is missing, records how he cele- 
brated the obsequies of his father, and closes with the 
words: "Gifts unto the princes, unto the spirits of the 

44 See G. Rawlinson, Herodotus, i. p. 263 sq., with notes on the burial customs 
of the Babylonians. 

45 Jastrow, Religion of Babylonia, p. 559. 

48 Clay, Documents Dated in the Reigns of Cassite Rulers, No. 40. 

47 King, Babylonian Religion, p. 39. 

48 See S. Langdon, Proc. Soc. Bibl. Archeology, 1918, pp. 50-52. 



226 SPIRITISM vii 

earth, and unto the gods who inhabit the grave, I then 
presented." 49 King Ashurbanipal also records that he 
invoked the shades of his ancestors, and poured out liba- 
tions in their honour: "The prescriptions for the sacri- 
fices and the libations of water for the shades of the 
kings, my predecessors, which had ceased to be observed, 
I introduced afresh. To gods and men, to the dead and 
the living I did good." 50 

/. Exorcism of the Dead. — Besides the offerings 
which were designed to placate the dead and keep them 
from harming the living, there were other rites which 
were intended to drive away the ghosts when they became 
troublesome. 

i. Invocation of the Gods. — As the chief helpers 
against the shades the gods were invoked to come to the 
aid of the sufferer. Since it was not known which of the 
gods would be the greatest help, it was customary to 
invoke all of them, not only the chief divinities of the 
Babylonian pantheon, but also many other minor deities 
who are known to us only from the magical texts. 

2. The Divine Prescription. — In many of the texts, 
after the invocation of the gods, we read how the god 
Marduk is taught the proper remedy by his father Ea, 
the god of wisdom : 

"Marduk hath seen him (the sick man) and 
Unto the house of his father Ea hath entered and spoken : 
'Father.' 

Twice he hath said unto him, 
'What this man shall do he knoweth not, 
Whereby he may be assuaged.' 
Ea hath answered his son Marduk: 
'O my son, what dost thou not know, 
What more can I give thee? 
O Marduk, what dost thou not know, 
How can I add unto thy knowledge? 
What I know thou knowest also. 
Go, my son Marduk.' " 51 

49 King, op tit., p. 49. 

"° M. Streck, Assurbanipdl, ii. p. 250. 

n Thompson, II. p. xxii. 



vii IN BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 227 

Then Ea gives his son Marduk specific directions what 
to do for the recovery of the sick man. Thus the cere- 
monies of the priest come with divine authority and have 
sacramental efficacy. The priest who knows what Ea, 
the father, has revealed through Marduk, his son, comes 
to the patient as the representative of the gods. He says : 

"The man of Ea am I! 
The man of Damkina am I! 
To revive (N.N.) the sick man, 
The great lord Ea hath sent me; 
He hath added his pure spell to mine, 
He hath added his pure voice to mine, 
He hath added his pure spittle to mine, 
He hath added his pure prayer to mine." 52 

3. Magic Rites. — The directions which Ea gives 
Marduk for the cure are almost exclusively magic cere- 
monies. A common form is the provision of an animal 
into which the evil spirit may enter when it leaves the 
man. Thus in one text we read: 

"Give the pig in his stead, 
And give the flesh as his flesh, 
The blood as his blood, 
And let him take it; 

Its heart (which thou hast set on his heart) 
Give as his heart, 
And let him take it." 53 

This reminds us of the story in Matt. 8 128-34 of how 
the demons went out of the man and entered into a herd 
of swine which they caused to rush violently down a 
precipice to destruction. Birds also were used, the idea 
being that the demons would enter into them and fly away 
with them when they were released. Thus one incanta- 
tion reads: 

"A raven, the bird that helpeth the gods, 
In my right hand I hold; 
A hawk, to flutter in thine evil face, 

51 Devils and Evil Spirits, Vol. I, Tablet III, 1, 65ff ; II. p. xxv. 
w Thompson, II. p. xxxiii. 



228 SPIRITISM vii 

In my left hand I thrust forward; 

With the sombre garb of awe I clothe thee, 

In sombre dress I robe thee." 54 

With this we may compare the ritual of the release of 
the bird in Lev. 14 14-7. 

Demons could be transferred not only to living crea- 
tures but also to inanimate objects. With the proper 
ceremonies they could be induced to take up their abode in 
vessels of water, which then were broken, scattering their 
contents, and driving away their occupants. In one 
magical text we read: 

"The evil Spirit (and) Ghost that appear in the desert, 
O Pestilence that hast touched the man for harm, 
The Tongue that is banefully fastened on the man, 
May they be broken in pieces like a goblet, 
May they be poured forth like water." 55 

Demons could also be induced to enter images of wax or 
of clay which were then destroyed. Thus we read : 

"Go, my son (Marduk), 
Pull off a piece of clay from the deep, 
Fashion a figure of his bodily form (therefrom) and 
Place it on the loins of the sick man by night, 
At dawn make the 'atonement' for his body, 
Perform the Incantation of Eridu, 
Turn his face to the west, 

That the Plague-demon which hath seized upon him 
May vanish away from him." 56 

Another favourite magical act was the tying and loos- 
ing of cords. The tying represented the binding of the 
man by the demon, the loosing, the release from its 
clutches. Compare Luke 13:16, "Ought not this woman 
. . . whom Satan had bound, lo, these eighteen years, to 
have been loosed from this bond?" One direction of this 
sort reads : 

84 Thompson, I. p. 135. 
K Ibid., I. p. 151. 
"Ibid., II. p. 101. 



vii IN BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 229 

"Weave thou a two-coloured cord from the hair of a virgin kid 
and from the wool of a virgin lamb, 
Upon the limbs of the king, son of his god, bind it." 57 

4. Drugs. — Drugs served originally a magical pur- 
pose, just as charms and spells. In the medical texts they 
are introduced with the same formula as the magical 
rites, and they are mingled with them. The theory that 
led to their use was either allopathic or homoeopathic. 
Some drugs were so bitter or nauseous that they would 
drive out any self-respecting devil. This was allopathic 
treatment. Other drugs resembled the demons or the 
organs of the body, and therefore rendered them 
propitious and mitigated their attacks. This was 
homoeopathy. 

The allopathic remedies included all the nasty sub- 
stances that the ancient Sumerians could discover. Among 
these are enumerated u a green frog, pestilence root with 
a claw of a black dog, a thorn plant with earth taken 
from the 'outer gate,' a green vegetable of some kind 
with the dust of a man's foot, swine's fat, swine's tail, 
dog's dung, the neck of a dog, the foot of a small insect, 
the fat of a serpent, excrement of man, and urine, the 
hair of a virgin goat, human bone." 58 

The homoeopathic remedies included plants or roots 
whose fantastic forms suggested a resemblance to the 
demons of disease, or plants whose leaves, or roots, or 
fruits, resembled organs of the human body. The 
ginseng root has no medicinal value, still it is dug ex- 
tensively in New England and exported to China, where 
it is highly prized as a remedy, because its grotesque 
forms are supposed to resemble various devils, and there- 
fore to be a powerful aid in expelling them. We still find 
traces of this theory of medicine in some modern popular 
botanical names such as liver-wort, spleen-wort, blood- 
root, etc. 

87 Thompson, I. p. 101. 
M Jastrow, o. c, p. 158. 



230 SPIRITISM vn 

5. Adjuration. — When the gods had been placated, 
and the magic rites had been performed, and the magic 
drugs had been administered, the time had come for the 
solemn adjuration of the demon to leave the body of the 
sick man. Like all primitive peoples, the Sumerians be- 
lieved in the magical power of the right form of words. 
The priest knew the proper ritual in the case of every 
disease; and when these words were uttered in connec- 
tion with the prescribed ceremonies, the demon could not 
withstand their power, but must leave the body of the 
sufferer. In order to get control of the demon it was 
important that his name should be mentioned in the ex- 
orcism. As this was not always known, it was usual to 
enumerate every variety of devil so that no one might 
slip through by inadvertence. These exorcisms, accord- 
ingly, are valuable sources of information in regard to 
Babylonian demonology, they are a sort of "Who's Who 
in Hell." After the demons are enumerated, the usual 
formula of exorcism in Sumerian is "ZI AN-NA KAN- 
PA ZI KI-A KAN-PA," or in Semitic translation "Ina 
shame sibit ina irsitim sibitma" that is, "By Heaven be 
thou exorcised, by Earth be thou exorcised." Other 
gods are invoked and other forms of exorcism are used. 
Then it is expected that sooner or later the demon will 
yield to the spell and leave the man. 

In the adjuration to the demon a curious argument is 
often introduced. He is told that he shall have no food 
or water until he comes out. This is an allusion to the 
belief that the ghosts could not rest unless they received 
their customary food-offerings and libations. They have 
entered into the sick man because of lack of these offer- 
ings, and they are told that they shall not receive them 
until they go out again. Thus in one tablet we read : 

"From the man, the son of his god, 
Thou shalt have no food to eat, 
Thou shalt have no water to drink, 
Thou shalt not stretch forth thy hand 



vii IN BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 231 

Unto the table of my father Bel, thy creator. 
Neither with sea-water, nor with sweet water, 
Nor with bad water, nor with Tigris water, 
Nor with Euphrates water, nor with pond water, 
Nor with river water shalt thou be covered." 59 

g. Necromancy. — The Babylonians and the Assyrians 
believed that it was possible by certain magic rites to call 
up spirits of the dead to answer questions or to injure 
enemies. The person who possessed this power was 
known as "raiser of the departed spirit." In the 
Gilgamesh Epic 60 we are told how Gilgamesh applied 
first to the god Enlil for help to bring up the ghost of 
his dead friend Enkidu (Eabani) , but received no answer. 
He then applied to the moon-god, but equally unsuccess- 
fully. Finally he applied to Enki (Ea), god of the 
ocean, the master of magic arts, and obtained his request. 

"Father Ea heard his prayer, 
Spoke to the mighty one, the hero Nergal, 
Mighty one, hero Nergal, hear his prayer! 
Open at once the hole of the earth, 
Let the ghost of Enkidu ascend out of the earth, 
Let him tell his brother the law of the earth! 
The mighty one, the hero Nergal . . . 
Opened at once the hole of the earth, 
And the ghost of Enkidu ascended like a wind out of the earth." 

Gilgamesh then says to Enkidu: 

"Tell me, my friend, tell me, my friend, 
The law of the earth that thou hast seen." 

The whole narrative bears a striking resemblance to 
the account of the raising of the ghost of Samuel by the 
witch of Endor in 1 Samuel, chapter 28. 

■• Thompson, I. p. 61. 
•o Tablet xii. col. 3. 



CHAPTER VIII 

EARLIEST HEBREW CONCEPTIONS OF THE DEAD 1 

From the period prior to the conquest of Canaan no 
written records of the Hebrews have come down to us, 
nevertheless, by means of the science of comparative 
religion their earliest beliefs in regard to the nature and 
destiny of the soul may be determined with a high degree 
of certainty. When in the later writings of the Old 
Testament we discover conceptions that are identical with 
those of the other Semites and of primitive races through- 
out the world, we are justified in inferring that these are 
survivals from the earliest period of the religion of Israel. 
a. The Distinction Between Soul and Body. — The 
early Hebrews, like all the other Semites, regarded man 
as composed of two elements, basar, or 'flesh,' and nefesh, 
or 'breath.' The basar was the material element that 
at death returned to dust. The same word was used for 
the "meat" of slaughtered animals. Men were called 
"flesh" and "all flesh" was used as a synonym for "man- 
kind" to emphasize the transitory, perishable side of 
human life. The nefesh or 'breath' was an ethereal 
substance that inhabited the basar. It was identical with 
the life. 2 It was the seat of knowledge, appetite, emo- 

1 The most important works on Spiritism among the Hebrews are: Stade, 
Geschichte des Volkes Israel (1881), I, 387ff.; Biblische Theologie (1905), 185ff.; 
Schwally, Das Leben nach dem Tode nach den Vorstellungen des alten Israels 
(1892); Frey, Tod, Seelenglaube und Seelenkult im alien Israel (1898); Charles, 
A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life (1899); Griineisen, Der 
Ahnenkultus und die Urreligion Israels (1900); Guerinot, "Le culte des morts 
chez les Hebreux," Journal Asiatique, 1904, pp. 441-85; Lods, La croyance a la 
vie future et le culte des morts dans I'antiquite israelite (1908); Margoliouth, 
"Ancestor- Worship (Hebrew and Jewish)," Hastings, Encyclopedia of Religion 
and Ethics, I, 444-50, 457-61; Torge, Seelenglaube und Unsterblichkeitshoffnung 
im Alten Testament (1909); Burney, Israel's Hope of Immortality (1909). 

2 Gen. 44:30 J; Ex. 21:23 E. 

232 



vin EARLY HEBREW CONCEPTIONS 233 

tion, and activity. 3 In composition with the pronominal 
suffixes nefesh had the meaning of 'self,' e. g., nafshi, 
'my breath,' equals 'myself.' It resided in the blood, 
hence the commandment, "Be sure that thou eat not the 
blood, for the blood is the nefesh, and thou shalt not eat 
the nefesh with the flesh; thou shalt pour it upon the 
earth as water." 4 The heart as the chief receptacle of 
blood in the body was also identified with the nefesh, 
hence throughout the Old Testament "heart" is used in- 
terchangeably with "breath" where we should say "mind" 
or "soul." Death was caused by the departure of the 
"breath." 5 Resurrection was the return of the "breath" 
into the body. 6 Rudh, 'wind,' was used in the early 
period practically as a synonym of nefesh, 'breath.' 

b. The Continued Existence of the Disembodied 
Soul. — The early Hebrews, like the other Semites, be- 
lieved that the nefesh, or 'breath,' persisted after death. 
The most ancient Hebrew tombs in Palestine contain 
precisely the same deposits that are found in other 
Semitic tombs, and bear witness to the same conception of 
immortality that was held by the other Semitic peoples. 7 
Nefesh is used as the name of the disembodied spirit. 8 
Belief in the continued existence of the dead is strikingly 
exemplified in the narrative of the appearance of the 
ghost of Samuel to Saul. 9 

c. Powers Retained by the Soul in Death. — The 
Hebrews believed that the dead retained a large measure 
of their former intellectual and emotional faculties. 
The shades are represented as rejoicing at the downfall 
of the king of Babylon. 10 Pharaoh is comforted when 

8 E.g., I Sam. 2:16; Gen. 34:3 J; II Sam. 5:8. 
4 Deut. 12:23f.; cf. Lev. 17:10; Gen. 9:4. 
8 Gen. 35:18 J. 
8 I Ki. 17:21f. 

7 Palestine Exploration Fund, Quarterly Statement, 1904, pp. 328ff. 
8 Cf. Lev. 19:28; 21:1; 21:11; Num. 5:2; 6:6; 6:11; 9:6f.; 9:10; 
19:llf.; Hag. 2:13. 
9 1 Sam., chap. 28. 
10 Isa. 14:9f. 



234 SPIRITISM vm 

he sees the hosts of the dead that have preceded him. 11 
Rachel mourns over the captivity of her children. 12 From 
Isa. 63:16 it appears that some of the nation believed 
that Abraham and Israel continued to care for their de- 
scendants. According to I Sam. 28:16-19, Samuel re- 
members his relations with Saul, and continues to feel 
concern in the welfare of Israel. The blood of murdered 
Abel cries to Yahweh from the earth, 13 that is, the soul 
that resides in the blood is conscious of the wrong done 
to it and demands vengeance. Compare Job 24:12: 
"From out of the cities the dead groan, and the soul of 
the slain crieth out"; also Enoch 9:10: "Now, behold, 
the spirits of the dead cry out, and lament even unto the 
gates of heaven"; and Rev. 6:9, where the souls under 
the altar cry out: "How long, O Master, the holy and 
true, dost thou not avenge our blood on them that dwell 
on the earth?" A father's blessing or curse operates 
after his death because he himself sees to its fulfilment. 
Hence the exaggerated reverence for parents and the 
aged that we find among the ancient Hebrews. 

In contrast to these passages, which ascribe to the dead 
a continuance of those powers of thought and feeling 
that they enjoyed on earth, another view appears in the 
later writings of the Old Testament, according to which 
the dead have lost memory, knowledge, and desire. This 
view, as we shall see more fully later, was a result of the 
conflict of the religion of Yahweh against primitive 
animism and ancestor-worship. The other conception, 
which ascribed to the dead large powers of thought and 
feeling, was, as comparative religion shows, the original 
Hebrew belief. 14 

d. Powers Gained by the Soul in Death. — The gen- 
eral Semitic belief in the superhuman powers of disem- 
bodied spirits was shared by the ancient Hebrews. 

"Ezek. 32:31. 

»Jer. 31:15. 

18 Gen. 4:10. 

14 Charles, Eschatalogy Hebrew and Christian, p. 41. 



vin EARLY HEBREW CONCEPTIONS 235 

Ghosts, like gods, could take possession of stones or 
images. Heaps of stones were placed over the graves 
of Achan and of Absalom that their ghosts might remain 
in them and trouble Israel no longer. 15 A massebd, or 
'standing stone/ stood upon Rachel's grave l unto this 
day.' 16 This was doubtless a beth-el, or 'house of 
deity,' as were all the other masseboth. 11 Masseboth 
of this sort must have been the seats of cult of the dead, 
since no exception is made in their favour in the sweeping 
condemnation of later legislation. 18 The view of Stade, 
Schwally, Budde, Holzinger, Nowack, and Charles that 
the teraphim were images of ancestors cannot be dem- 
onstrated, but is nevertheless exceedingly probable in view 
of the facts that they were not images of Yahweh, 19 that 
they represented the human form, 20 that they were house- 
hold gods, 21 and that they were used for obtaining 
oracles. 22 Etymologically the word may be connected 
with rephaim, 'shades,' or with Bab. tarpu, 'spectre.' 
It is interesting to note that Wisd. Sol. 14:15 connects 
the origin of idolatry with images of the dead. 

Of the belief that spirits could take possession of 
animals we find no trace in the Old Testament, unless it 
be in the list of unclean beasts Lev., chap. 11, and Deut., 
chap. 14. It is noteworthy that the animals and birds 
here pronounced unclean are precisely those which the 
other Semites regarded as most often possessed by spirits. 
From Exod. 20:4 (cf. II Kings 18:4; Ezek. 8:10) we 
learn that the early Hebrews worshipped images of 
animals, which shows that they regarded animals as the 
abodes of spirits. 

Of the idea that spirits could take possession of men, 
causing disease, insanity, or inspiration, a survival is seen 

"Josh. 7:26; II Sam. 18:17. 
16 Gen. 35:20; cf. II Sam. 18:18. 
"Gen. 35:14f. 

18 Exod. 23:24; 34:13; Lev. 26:1; Deut. 7:5; 12:3; 16:22. 

19 Gen. 35:2, 4, E; cf. 31:19, E. 
20 1 Sam. 19:13, 16. 

21 Gen. 31:30, 34; Judg. 17:5; I Sam. 19:13, 16. 

22 1 Sam. 15:23; II Kings 23:24; Ezek. 21:21; Zech. 10:2. 



2 3 6 SPIRITISM vm 

among the Hebrews in the fact that diseases such as 
leprosy rendered one ceremonially unclean. Being caused 
by rival spirits, they roused the jealousy of Yahweh, and 
excluded the sufferer from his cult. In later times they 
were ascribed to the activity of Yahweh himself, who thus 
absorbed the functions of the ancient lesser spirits; 23 
but, with curious inconsistency, the diseases still remained 
unclean. The insanity of Saul was due to "an evil spirit 
from Yahweh that terrified him," 24 and such insanity 
protected a man from injury, because, as in the modern 
Orient, he was regarded as inspired. 25 To stir up trouble 
between Abimelech and the Shechemites, God sent an 
evil spirit into them ; 26 and in order that Sennacherib 
might depart, Yahweh sent a spirit into him. 27 In the 
developed Hebrew theology all extraordinary talents or 
powers were ascribed to possession by the spirit of 
Yahweh ; 28 but this idea was due to absorption by 
Yahweh of the functions of originally independent spirits, 
as is shown by the survival in the Hebrew language of 
such expressions as "spirit of wisdom, spirit of might, 
spirit of jealousy, spirit of error, spirit of deep sleep." 

Spirits of the dead possessed greater knowledge than 
living men. When the ghost of Samuel appeared to Saul, 
he predicted to him his impending death and the defeat 
of Israel. 29 Hence when these spirits took possession 
of men they induced clairvoyant powers. Such a pos- 
sessing spirit was called yidde'orii, 'the knowing one,' 
or as our version renders it, 'familiar spirit.' 30 Another 
name is } 6bh, the etymology and exact meaning of which 
are unknown. 31 Because of these superhuman powers 

23 Num. 12:10; I Sam. 25:38; I Kings 17:20. 

2 *I Sam. 16:14. 

28 1 Sam. 21:12-15; 24:7. 

2e Judg. 9:23. 

2T II Kings 19:7. 

28 Exod. 28:3; 31:3; Num. 27:18; Judg. 6:34; 11:29; 13:25; 14:6, 19; 15:14; 
I Sam. 11:6. 

28 I Sam. 28:19. 

30 1 Sam. 28:3, 9; Isa. 8:19; 19:3; II Ki. 21:6; 23:24; Deut. 18:11; Lev. 
19:31; 20:6; 27. 

81 1 Sam. 28:7f.; Isa. 29:4. 



viii EARLY HEBREW CONCEPTIONS 237 

the Hebrews, like the other Semites, applied to ghosts the 
name elohim, 'gods.' 32 

The dead were believed to retain the semblance of 
their former bodies, and to be able to appear not only 
to one another but also to the living. The ghost of 
Samuel was recognized by Saul because he appeared as 
"an old man covered with a robe." 33 The kings of the 
earth still wore their royal apparel and sat on thrones 
in the other world. 34 The dead of all the different 
nations were recognizable by their features and their 
costumes. The warriors "had their weapons of war 
and laid their swords under their heads." The uncir- 
cumeised remained uncireumcised ; those pierced with the 
sword still showed the fatal gash. 35 Hence wounded 
warriors committed suicide that they might appear in 
the other world to have died as heroes. 36 

In the Old Testament appearances of ghosts are rarely 
mentioned, because the religion of Yahweh was opposed 
to necromancy and the cult of the dead; still there is the 
classical instance of the raising of Samuel. 37 In post- 
biblical literature apparitions of the dead are more fre- 
quently mentioned. Thus in II Mac. 15:12-16 the high 
priest Onias and the prophet Jeremiah appear to Judas 
Maccabaeus on the eve of the battle with the Syrians, 
and in Josephus 38 Alexander appears to his widow 
Glaphyra. 

e. Powers Lost by the Soul in Death. — The Hebrews, 
like the other Semites, thought of the soul as losing its 
physical powers in parting from the body. For them it 
was only "breath" or "wind." The common name for 
ghosts is rephaim, 'feeble ones.' 39 In Isa. 14:10 the 
ghosts say: "Art thou also become weak as we?" In 

12 1 Sam, 28:13. 

83 I Sam. 28:14. 

84 Isa. 14:9. 

88 Ezek. 32:21-32; cf. 28:10; 31:18. 

86 Judg. 9:54; I Sam. 31:4; II Sam. 17:23. 

87 1 Sam., chap. 28; cf. Job 4:15. 

88 Ant. XVII, 13:4; War, II, 7:4. 

^Job 26:5; Ps. 88:11 [10]; Prov. 2:18; Isa. 14:9; 26:19. 



2 3 8 SPIRITISM vm 

Ps. 88 :4 the sick man says: "I am like to them that go 
down into the pit; I am as a man that hath no help." 
According to Isa. 59:10 they "grope as those that have 
no eyes, and stumble at noon as in the twilight." 40 Such 
statements show that the Hebrews inherited from their 
forefathers the general belief of primitive man in the 
shadowy, unsubstantial nature of disembodied souls. 

/. The Abode of the Disembodied Spirit. — Among 
the Hebrews, as among the other Semites, the soul was 
believed to retain a close connection with its dead body. 
The corpse and everything connected with it rendered 
one who. touched it taboo. Originally this was a sacred 
taboo due to the presence of the revered spirits in the 
body; subsequently, in consequence of the opposition of 
Yahwism to the cult of the dead, it was regarded as 
an unclean taboo. 41 The cult of the patriarchs and 
heroes that was carried on at their graves proves that 
they were supposed still to haunt their bodies. The 
voice of Rachel weeping for her children was heard in 
Ramah on the road between Bethel and Bethlehem where 
her body was buried. 42 Similarly, in Mark 5 :5, the man 
possessed by the unclean spirit dwelt among the tombs. 
Injuries to the body were still felt by the soul. Job 
14:2 if., while denying that the dead man cares anything 
about his sons, yet affirms, "Only for his own body he 
feels pain, and for his own soul he mourns." Hence 
mutilation of the corpses of enemies was practised by 
the Hebrews as by other ancient peoples. 43 

Among the Hebrews there existed the same horror of 
remaining unburied that was felt by the other Semites. 
Fathers on their deathbeds solemnly charged their sons 
not to neglect the last rites. 44 When the prophet de- 
clared, "They shall not be gathered nor buried, they 

*»Cf. Ezek. 26:20f. 

"E.g., Num. 19:11 P. 

"Jer. 31:15; Gen. 35:16-20. 

«I Sam. 17:51ff.; 18:25, 27; II Sam. 4:12; 20:22. 

"E.g., Gen. 47:30. 



vin EARLY HEBREW CONCEPTIONS 239 

shall be as dung upon the face of the ground," 45 this 
was a fearful curse. Still more terrible was the thought 
of being devoured by beasts. 46 So dreadful did it seem 
to refuse burial that this was accorded even to crim- 
inals, 47 or to those who committed suicide. 48 Only the 
bodies of foreign enemies, or of the most heinous offend- 
ers were left unburied, 49 or were burnt. 50 Violation of 
tombs and burning of their contents were regarded as 
terrible calamities. 51 

Not merely burial but also burial in the family grave 
was earnestly desired by the Hebrews. Jacob required 
of Joseph that he should bury him in the burying-place 
of his fathers. 52 Of nearly all the kings of Judah it is 
recorded that they were buried with their fathers in the 
city of David; hence the euphemistic expressions for 
burial, "gather unto one's fathers," "gather unto one's 
kin," "lie with one's fathers." Exclusion from the family 
tomb was a severe punishment. 53 All this shows that 
the Hebrews, like other ancient peoples, believed that the 
soul lingered with the corpse, and that by burial in the 
family tomb it enjoyed the fellowship of its relatives. 
This explains why offerings to the dead were placed 
either in or upon their graves. Hebrew tombs in Pales- 
tine contain the same sorts of deposits that are placed 
in the earlier Canaanite tombs, and offerings to the dead 
are frequently mentioned in the Old Testament. 54 

«Jer. 25:33; cf. Isa. 14:18f.; Jer. 22:19; 36:30. 

"II Sam. 21:10; I Kings 14:13; II Kings 9:35ff. 

«Deut. 21:22f.; Josh. 7:24-26. 

"Josephus, War, III, 8:5. 

*»I Sam. 17:44; Ezek. 29:5. 

80 Isa. 30:33; Gen. 38:24; Lev. 20:14; Josh. 7:15. 

"Am. 2:1; I Kings 13:2; II Kings 23:16, 20. 

"Gen. 47:30; cf. 50:25; II Sam. 17:23; 19:37; 21:14. 

"II Sam. 18:17; I Kings 13:22; II Kings 21:18; II Chron. 28:27. 

"Deut. 26:14; Jer. 16:7; Ezek. 24:17, 22; II Chron. 16:14. 



CHAPTER IX 

BABYLONIAN INFLUENCE ON HEBREW CONCEPTIONS OF 

THE DEAD 

In the previous chapter we considered those conceptions 
of the future life which the Hebrews held before their 
migration out of their primitive home in the Arabian 
desert. We must now consider the new elements that 
entered their eschatology in consequence of the conquest 
of Canaan. 

The Canaanites were a Semitic people, closely akin 
to Israel; and their original beliefs concerning the soul, 
as archaeology shows, were identical with those of the 
other Semites; but, as a result of long-continued Babylo- 
nian influence, these beliefs had undergone many im- 
portant modifications during the two millenniums that 
preceded the Hebrew conquest. 1 Babylonian ideas of 
the other world were adopted by the Canaanites, and 
were passed on to the Hebrews who settled among them 
and amalgamated with them. As a result of this process 
the Old Testament contains not only primitive Semitic 
beliefs about the future life, but also another diverse 
cycle of ideas which goes back ultimately to a Babylonian 
origin. 

The Hebrew conception of Sheol is in every particular 
the counterpart of the ancient Babylonian conception of 
Aralu as described in chapter vii. As among the 
Babylonians, so also in the Old Testament "Death" or 
"the Dead," is used frequently in poetic parallelism with 
Sheol. 2 As among the Babylonians, so also in the Old 

1 Paton, Early History of Syria and Palestine, chap. iv. 
2 E.g., II Sam. 22:5f.; Hos. 13:14; Ps. 115:17. 

240 



ix BABYLONIAN INFLUENCE 241 

Testament "Earth" is a frequent synonym of Sheol. 3 To 
the Babylonian conception of the "Great Beneath" cor- 
responds the Hebrew Eres-tahtiyd (or tahtiyoth), which 
our version renders "the lower part of the earth" but 
which more properly means "Lower Land" or "Under- 
world." 4 The Babylonian idea of "the Hollow" appears 
in the Old Testament in the name Bor, 'the Pit,' 5 or 
the synonymous Shahath. 6 

As in Babylonia so also in the Old Testament one 
"goes down" or is "brought down" to Sheol, 7 and the 
sick man who barely escapes death is said to be "brought 
up" from Sheol. 8 How literally this language is meant 
is shown by the story of Korah and his company who 
"went down alive into Sheol," 9 or Amos 9 :2, which 
speaks of "digging into Sheol" Isa. 7:11 speaks of 
"going deep unto Sheol" ; Isa. 29 '.4 of the shade as 
speaking "deep from the earth" ; Isa. 57 .-9, of "descending 
deep unto Sheol." Sheol is called the "under part of 
the earth," 10 and both Sheol and the Pit have the ad- 
jective "beneath" attached to them. 11 Ecclus. 51:5 
speaks of the "depth of the belly of Hades." Sheol is 
lower than the foundations of the mountains. 12 Beneath 
the earth are the "waters under the earth," 13 but Sheol is 
lower than these. 14 The deepest thing conceivable is 
said to be "deeper than Sheol," 15 and the depths of Sheol 
are often contrasted with the heights of heaven. 16 

8 Exod. 15:12; Isa. 14:9; 29:4; Eccles. 3:21; see Gunkel, Schopfung und Chaos, 
P. 18. 

*Ezek. 26:20; 31:14; 32:18, 24. 

B Ezek. 26:20; 31:14, 16; 32:18, 23; Isa. 14:15, 19; 38:18; Ps. 28:1; 30:3; 
40:2; 88:6; 143:7; Prov. 1:12; 28:17; Lam. 3:53, 55. 

•Job 33:18, 24, 28, 30; Isa. 38:17; 51:14; Ezek. 28:8. 

7 Ps. 28:1; 30:3; 88:4; 107:26; 143:7; Isa. 14:19; 38:18; Ezek. 26:20; 
31:14, 16; 32:18f. 

8 1 Sam. 2:6; Jos 33:24, 28, 30; Ps. 9:13; 16:10; 30:3; 49:15; 86:13; Lam. 
3:53, 55; Jonah 2:6; Wis. 16:13; Tob. 13:2. 

"Num. 16:30-33; cf. Ps. 55:15; Prov. 1:12. 

10 Ps. 63:9; 139:15; Isa. 44:23. 

11 Deut. 32:22; Ps. 88:6; Lam. 3:55. 
"Deut. 32:22; Jonah 2:6. 

- 8 Gen. 49:25; Exod. 20:4; Amos 7:4. 

"Job 26:5; Lam. 3:53; Jonah 2:3f. 

18 Job 11:8. 

"Job 11:8; Ps. 139:8; Isa. 7:11; Amos 9:2. 



242 SPIRITISM ix 

Like the Babylonians, the Hebrews believed that Sheol 
was ordinarily entered through a gate in the western 
horizon by which the sun, moon, and stars went down. 
In Enoch 22:1-4 the entrance to Sheol is described as 
lying in the distant west. The Hebrews conceived of 
the earth as surrounded by water, and therefore spoke 
of the "ends of the earth." To reach Sheol one had to 
pass across, or through the waters. II Sam. 2 2:5f. 
(=Ps. i8:4f.) reads: "The waves of Death compassed 
me, the floods of Belial made me afraid, the cords of 
Sheol were round about me, the snares of Death came 
upon me" ; and Jonah 2 12-5 : "Out of the belly of Sheol 
I cried . . . for thou didst cast me into the depth, into 
the heart of the seas, and the flood was round about me; 
all thy waves and thy billows passed over me. . . . The 
waters compassed me about, even to the soul; the deep 
was round about me ; the weeds were wrapped about my 
head." 17 Deut. 3o:i2f. contrasts "crossing the sea" 
with "going up into heaven," and in Rom. 10:7 "crossing 
the sea" is interpreted as "descending into the abyss." 
Of the ferryman across the "Waters of Death" there is 
no trace in the Old Testament. Spirits are supposed 
rather to "fly away" to their abode. 18 The bird-like 
form assumed by the soul for its journey was a wide- 
spread belief of antiquity, and appears probably in the 
word "twitter" that is used of the voice of ghosts. 19 

The Babylonian conception of the seven divisions of 
Sheol is familiar to Jewish Theology. 20 They are first 
mentioned in II Esdras 7.80 ff., but the idea is certainly 
much more ancient. Prov. 7 127 knows of the "chambers 
of Death" and Isa. 14:15; Ezek. 32:23 of the "recesses 
of the Pit." The gates of Sheol are referred to in Job 
38:17; Ps. 9:13; 107:18; Isa. 38:10; Wis. 16:13; Matt. 
16:18; and their bars in Job 17:16; Jonah 2:6. The 

"Cf. Job 36:16f.; Ps. 88:7; 107:26; 124:3-5; Lam. 3:54; Amos 9:2f. 

18 Ps. 90:10. 

"Isa. 8:19; 29:4. 

80 Eisenmenger, Entdecktes Judenthum, II, 328ff. 



ix BABYLONIAN INFLUENCE 243 

Greek text of Job 38:17 speaks of the "gatekeepers of 
Sheol." 

The same confusion between the grave and Sheol that 
existed in Babylonia is found also in the Old Testament. 
Sheol and the grave are used interchangeably in a great 
number of passages, 21 Isa. 14:11 says, "Thy pomp is 
brought down to Sheol . . . the worm is spread under 
thee, and worms cover thee." Ezek. 32:17-32 speaks 
of all the nations as lying in graves in the midst of Sheol. 
Like the Babylonians, the Hebrews regarded Sheol as a 
place of darkness. In Job 10:2 if. it is called "The land 
of darkness and of deep gloom, the land of thick dark- 
ness like darkness itself, the land of deep gloom without 
any order, and where the light is as darkness." 22 As 
among the Babylonians, so also in the Old Testament 
"dust" is a synonym of Sheol. 23 

The Babylonian belief in a king of Sheol who ruled 
over a host of malignant spirits is found also in the Old 
Testament. Sheol is frequently personified as a hungry 
monster opening its jaws to devour men. 24 It seems to 
have been worshipped as a deity by the Canaanites, to 
judge from certain place-names in Palestine. 25 Muth, 
'Death,' was deified by the Phoenicians. 26 He appears 
in the Hebrew personal name Ahi-Moth, 'Death is a 
brother,' and probably in several place-names. In the 
Old Testament Death is often personified and is used in 
parallelism with Sheol. 27 He appears as the ruler of 
Sheol in Ps. 49:14: "They are appointed as a flock for 
Sheol, Death shall be their shepherd"; and in Job 18 :i4: 
"He shall be brought to the King of Terrors." Another 
demon of the Underworld is apparently Belial 
(BHiya'al) , which the scribes have fancifully vocalized 

81 E.g., Gen. 37:35; Ps. 88:3, 5, 11. 

M Cf. Job 17:13; 38:17; Ps. 88:6, 12; 143:3; Ps. of Sol. 14:19. 

23 Job 7:21; 17:16; Isa. 29:4. 

"Isa. 5:14; Hab. 2:5; Jonah 2:2; Prov. 1:12; 27:20; 30:l5f. 

" H. P. Smith, in Studies in Memory of W. R. Harper, I, 55, 

29 Ibid, 61. 

"Job 30:23; 38:17; Ps. 107:18, 



244 SPIRITISM ix 

as though it meant 'without use/ but which may mean 
'the god who swallows' (Bdli'el). 28 Similar is the 
"destroyer" of Exod. 12:23, or the "destroyers" of Job 
33 :22. Diseases are often personified as the evil demons 
of Sheol: "Terrors shall make him afraid on every 
side, and shall chase him at his heels. His strength shall 
be hunger-bitten, and Calamity shall be ready at his side. 
It shall devour the members of his body, yea the First- 
born of Death shall devour his members"; 29 "Shall I 
ransom them from the power of Sheol? Shall I redeem 
them from Death? Hither with thy plagues, O Death! 
Hither with thy pestilence, O Sheol!"; 30 "The pangs 
of Death compassed me, and the pains of Sheol got 
hold upon me." 31 The death-angels of later Judaism 
are simply the degraded gods of the Underworld of an 
earlier period. 

The inevitableness of Sheol was keenly felt by the 
early Babylonians, and similarly the ancient Hebrews 
said, "I go the way of all the earth"; 32 "I know that 
thou wilt bring me to Death, and to the house appointed 
for all the living"; 33 "What man is he that shall live 
and not see Death, that shall deliver his soul from the 
hand of Sheol?" 34 "Remember the sentence upon him, 
for so also shall thine be; yesterday for me, and today 
for thee." 35 Only a few Babylonian heroes escaped 
going down to Sheol by being translated to the gods. In 
the Old Testament we have the similar cases of Enoch 36 
and Elijah. 37 Such translations were, however, so rare 
that they constituted no basis for hope that men in 
general would escape the common doom of humanity. 

28 Nah. 1:15; II Sam. 22:5 (=Ps. 18:5). 

28 E.g., Job. 18:11-13. 

•°Hos. 13:14. 

81 Ps. 116:3; cf. II. Sam. 22:6. 

"Josh. 23:14; I Kings 2:2. 

88 Job 30:23. 

**Ps. 89:48. 

"Ecclus. 38:22. 

88 Gen. 5:24. ' ':' 

"11 Kings 2:11. 



ix BABYLONIAN INFLUENCE 245 

Like the Babylonian literature, the Old Testament 
knows of a distinction in the fate of the dead in Sheol. 
Ezek. 31:16 speaks of the kings of the earth as "the 
trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, that drink 
water and are comforted in the nether parts of the 
earth." Ezek. 32:23; Isa. 14:15, 19 speak of those who 
go down to "the recesses of the Pit" or the "stones of 
the Pit"; but in both of these cases their sad fate is not 
due to sin, but to the fact that they are "cast forth from 
the sepulchre like an abominable branch ... as a 
carcase trodden under foot." Lack of burial prevented 
rest in Sheol, and lack of burial in the family tomb ex- 
cluded one from the society of his relatives, 38 but there 
is no trace in the Old Testament of a division of the dead 
on the basis of character. The sinner is threatened with 
Sheol as a punishment, but never with a particular section 
of Sheol. 39 The righteous Samuel says to the wicked 
Saul, who has been rejected by the Lord, "Tomorrow 
shalt thou and thy sons be with me." 40 Jacob says, "I 
shall go down to the grave unto my son mourning," in 
spite of the fact that he supposes Joseph to have been 
devoured by a beast, and therefore to be unburied. 41 
The Old Testament thinks far more frequently of the 
miserable lot of all the shades than of distinctions that 
exist among them. Isa. 14:9-23 and Ezek. 32:18-32 
speak of all men of all races as dwelling together in Sheol, 
and Job 3 :i3-i9 says: 

"Now should I have lain down and been quiet; I should have 
slept; then had I been at rest, with kings and counsellors of the 
earth who built tombs for themselves, or with princes that had 
gold, who filled their houses with silver: or as a hidden untimely 
birth I had not been: as infants which never saw light. There 
the wicked cease from troubling ; and there the weary are at rest. 
There the prisoners are at ease together; they hear not the voice 

38 See p. 239. 

89 Cf. Prov. 2:18; 21:16. 

*°I Sam. 28:19. 

« Gen. 37:33, 35 J. 



246 SPIRITISM ix 

of the taskmaster. The small and the great are there; and the 
slave is free from his master." 

The Babylonian laments over the impossibility of re- 
turning from Sheol find their echo in the Old Testament. 
David says, "I shall go to him, but he shall not return 
to me" ; 42 and the wise woman of Tekoa, "We must 
needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which 
cannot be gathered up again"; 43 "As the cloud is con- 
sumed and vanisheth away, so he that goeth down to 
Sheol shall come up no more. He shall return no more 
to his house, neither shall his place know him any 
more." 44 

Like the Babylonian literature, the Old Testament 
holds that in severe illness the soul leaves the body and 
begins its journey to the Underworld. Thus Job 33 119-22 
says: "He is chastened with pain upon his bed, and with 
continual strife in his bones. His flesh is consumed away 
that it cannot be seen, and his bones that were not seen 
stick out. Yea his soul draweth near unto the Pit, and 
his life to the Destroyers." Similarly Ps. 88 :3f. : "My 
soul is full of troubles, and my life draweth near unto 
Sheol. I am counted with them that go down into the 
Pit." Isa. 29 14 speaks of half-dead Judah as speaking 
like a ghost out of the ground. When Yahweh, like the 
Babylonian "Quickeners of the Dead," takes pity on the 
sufferer and restores him to health, he is said to bring 
him back from Sheol. Thus Hezekiah, when cured of his 
dangerous illness, says: "Thou hast in love to my soul 
delivered it from the Pit of Beli[al?]." 45 In none of 
these passages is a resurrection referred to, or even a 
blessed immortality for the disembodied spirit, but only 
a release from impending death. The doctrine of a resur- 
rection of the body does not appear in the Old Testament 

"II Sam. 12:23. 
43 II Sam. 14:14. 

"Job 7:9f.; cf. 10:21; 16:22; Eccles. 12:5; Ecclus. 38:21; Wis. 16:14. 
"Isa. 38:17; cf. I Sam. 2:6; Job 33:24, 28, 30; Ps. 9:13; 16:10; 30:3; 49:15; 
86:13; Lam. 3:53, 55; Jonah 2:6; Wis. 16:13; Tob. 13:2. 



ix BABYLONIAN INFLUENCE 247 

until after the Exile, and therefore has no connection 
with ancient Babylonian beliefs. Three cases are re- 
corded in pre-exilic literature of a raising of the dead 
to life. The first is Elijah's raising of the widow's son, 46 
the second is Elisha's raising of the son of the woman of 
Shunem, 47 and the third is the raising of a dead man 
through contact with the bones of Elisha. 48 In all these 
cases apparent death had just occurred, but the body had 
not yet been buried, so that one may question whether 
the connection between soul and body had been com- 
pletely severed. These restorations do not differ ma- 
terially from the preceding instances in which the souls 
of the dangerously ill are brought back from the gates 
of Sheol. Pre-exilic literature does not know a single 
instance in which reanimation occurs after dissolution has 
set in. 

From the foregoing study it appears that the Old Tes- 
tament doctrine of Sheol is the counterpart in every par- 
ticular of the Babylonian doctrine of Aralu, and there can 
be no doubt that, directly or indirectly, it has been derived 
from Babylonia. When we consider the fact that this belief 
appears in the earliest Hebrew literature we must assume 
that it was acquired soon after the conquest of Canaan; 
and that probably it was acquired from the earlier 
inhabitants of the land, who, as is known from recent 
archaeological discoveries, had become thoroughly Baby- 
lonianized long before the arrival of the Hebrews. 

"I Kings 17:21ff. 
« II Kings 4:32ff. 
"II Kings 13:21. 



CHAPTER X 

WORSHIP OF THE DEAD BY ISRAEL 

The mourning and funeral rites of the ancient Hebrews 
were closely similar to those of the other Semites, and 
have also many analogies in the customs of primitive 
and uncivilized races throughout the world. There can 
be no doubt, therefore, that they belonged to the earliest 
period of the religion of Israel. They all point to an 
original cult of the dead. 

a. Removal of Garments. — As soon as death oc- 
curred, or news of it was received, the Hebrews "tore 
off" (A. V. "rent") their garments. 1 Originally, doubt- 
less, the mourner remained naked as long as the funeral 
rites lasted; but, with advancing civilization, this was 
felt to be indecent; and therefore, after the garments 
had been torn off, sackcloth was usually girded on. 2 The 
"sackcloth" was merely a kilt of goat or camel's hair, 
such as had been worn by the forefathers in the desert. 
It was the nearest approach to nakedness that propriety 
would allow. Bare feet were unobjectionable, and 
therefore remained a sign of mourning down to late 
times. 3 In the post-exilic period the Jews were satisfied 
with merely tearing off the upper garment. 4 By the time 
of Christ the custom was conventionalized into a mere 
tearing of a small piece out of the robe, or a baring of 
the arm and shoulder. 5 

*Cf. Mic. 1:8, 11; Isa. 20:2. 

2 Gen. 37:34; II Sam. 3:31; I Kings 21:27; II Kings 6:30; 19:1; Esther 4:1. 

•II Sam. 15:30; Ezek. 24:17. 

*Ezra 9:3; Num. 14:6. 

•Buchler, Zeitschrift fur die alttestomentliche Wissenschaft, XXI, 81-92; 
Jastrow, "The Tearing of Garments as a Sign of Mourning," Journal American 
Oriental Society, XXI, 23. 

248 



x WORSHIP OF THE DEAD BY ISRAEL 249 

The custom had a religious origin. The case of Saul, 
who stripped off his garments when he prophesied, and 
lay all night naked, 6 shows that in early times nudity was 
regarded as the proper condition for a seer. Even in 
later days the prophets wore the primitive skin apron 
( "hairy mantle" ) . 7 Sandals were removed from the feet 
when entering holy ground. 8 Similarly one stripped one's 
self and removed one's sandals when mourning because 
one was about to take part in the cult of the dead. 9 This 
rite was forbidden to the high priest 10 as it was an act 
of worship to another deity than Yahweh. 

b. Covering the Head. — The Hebrews had also the 
custom of covering the head or mouth, or laying the hand 
on the head as an act of mourning. 11 The most natural 
interpretation of this ceremony is suggested by Exod. 
3 :6; I Kings 19 113, where the prophets cover their heads 
in the presence of Yahweh so as to protect themselves 
from death if they looked upon him. 12 

c. Cuttings in the Flesh. — These are referred to by 
Jeremiah as established forms of mourning to which 
the prophet does not object. 13 In Lev. 19:28 they are 
associated with tattooed marks. The fact that they are 
prohibited by Lev. 19:28; 21:5, and Deut. 14:1 shows 
that they are known to be religious rites in honour 
of the dead. Lev. 19:28 states expressly that they are 
made "for a spirit." The interpretation of the custom 
is furnished by I Kings 18 :2 8, where the prophets of Baal 
cut themselves in honour of their god. 

d. Cutting the Hair. — In mourning the Hebrews 
shaved the head, 14 made a "bald spot between the 

«I Sam. 19:24. 

T II Kings 1:8; Zech. 13:4; Matt. 3:4; Mark 1:6. 

8 Exod. 3:5; Josh. 5:15. 

9 See Jastrow, "The Tearing of Garments as a Symbol of Mourning," Jour. 
Am. Orient. Soc, XXI, 23ff. 

10 Lev. 21:10. 

"II Sam. 13:19; 15:30; 19:4; Esther 6:12; Ezek. 24:17, 22; Mic. 3:7. 

"Exod. 33:20. 

13 Jer. 16:6; 41:5; 47:5; 48:37. 

" Mic. 1:16; Isa. 15:2; 22:12; Jer. 16:6; 47:5; 48:37; Deut. 21:12; Lev. 21:5. 



250 SPIRITISM x 

eyes," 15 or shaved off the beard. 16 In later times a 
little of the hair was plucked out as a ceremonial 
equivalent. This performance also must be interpreted 
as an act of worship to the dead. The hair of the nazirite 
was dedicated to Yahweh, and was presented as a sacrifice 
when his vow expired. 17 The prohibition of cutting the 
hair for the dead l8 shows also that it was regarded as 
a religious ceremony. 

e. Covering with Dust or Ashes. — The Hebrews, 
when mourning, seem originally to have wallowed in the 
dust. 19 Subsequently they sat in the dust, 20 or put dust 
upon their heads. 21 The rite is evidently a symbolic act 
of communion with the dead. 

/. Fasting. — Fasting usually lasted until the evening 
of the day of death. 22 When it was continued over a 
longer period, e.g., seven days, 23 food was taken only 
after the sun had set, as in the Muhammadan feast of 
Ramadan. 

g. Burial. — Immediately after death the eyes of the 
corpse were closed, 24 probably also the mouth, though 
this does not happen to be mentioned before the Mishna. 
The body was then washed, 25 anointed with perfumed 
oils, 26 dressed in its best attire, and bound up in the 
position of an unborn child, as we know from the remains 
in early Hebrew tombs in Palestine. 27 These customs 
are not mentioned in the Old Testament, but their an- 
tiquity is proved by the fact that they existed also among 

18 Deut. 14:1. 

18 Isa. 15:2; Jer. 41:5; 48:37. 
"Num. 6:5, 18; Judg. 13:5; 16:17. 
18 Lev. 21:5; Deut. 14:1. 

19 Mic. 1:10; Jer. 6:26; Ezek. 27:30; Esther 4:3. 
20 Isa. 26:19; 47:1; 52:2; 58:5; Ezek. 28:18; Job 2:8; Jonah 3:6. 
"Josh. 7:6; I Sam. 4:12; II Sam. 1:2; 13:19; Esther 4:1; Job 2:12; Lam. 
2:10; Ezek. 27:30; II Mace. 10:25; 14:15; Rev. 18:19. 
22 II Sam. 1:12; 3:35; 12:21. 
28 1 Sam. 31:13. 
24 Gen. 46:4. 

26 Acts 9:37. 

28 Mark 16:1; Luke 24:1; John 12:3, 7; 19:40. 

27 Cf. Matt. 27:59; Mark 15:46; Luke 23:53. 



x WORSHIP OF THE DEAD BY ISRAEL 251 

the Babylonians and the Arabs. 28 As in the modern 
Orient, the interment probably took place in the evening 
of the day of death, which explains why fasting usually 
lasted until the evening. 29 The body was carried to the 
grave on a bier, 30 and coffins were unknown in the early 
period. The poor were laid on the ground, or in a 
shallow trench, and were covered with a mound of earth. 
The rich were buried in caves or in artificial tombs that 
they had hewn out for themselves during their lifetime. 31 
In pre-exilic days these tombs were entered by holes in 
the roofs, and the dead were deposited one above the 
other in layers on the floor. 32 On the importance attached 
to burial in the family tomb see pp. 238, 245. With the 
dead were deposited food and drink, pottery, lamps, 
implements, weapons, ornaments, amulets, and images of 
various sorts. 33 Many of the articles were broken, the 
idea being doubtless to liberate their spirits so that they 
might join the spirit of the dead. 

h. The Sanctity of Tombs. — The Book of Genesis 
and the other early historical books record the burial 
places of the forefathers with the same interest that they 
show in tracing the origin of the numerous holy springs, 
holy trees, holy mountains, and holy stones. That they 
enjoyed a similar sanctity is proved by numerous refer- 
ences to them as seats of worship. At Hebron, the burial 
place of Sarah and Abraham, 34 the chiefs made a cove- 
nant 35 and Absolom paid his vows. 36 It was a "city of 
refuge" 37 and a city of the priests. 38 According to 
Sozomen, 39 religious rites were kept up here as late as 

28 King, Babylonian Religion, pp. 48ff. ; Wellhausen, Reste, 2 p. 178. 
29 II Sam. 1:12; 3:35; 12:21; cf. Deut. 21:23. 
60 II Sam. 3:31. 

81 Gen. 23:9; II Kings 23:16; Isa. 22:16. 

82 Palestine Exploration Fund, Quarterly Statement, 1904, pp. 328ff. 
"Ibid., pp. 332-35. 

"Gen. 23:19; 25:9. 
"II Sam. 5:3. 
"II Sam. 15:7, 12. 
,T Josh. 20:7. 
"Josh. 21:11. 
"Histor. eccl, II, 4. 



252 SPIRITISM x 

Christian times. The Haram, or 'sanctuary,' that 
covers the supposed cave of Machpelah is still one of the 
chief holy places of Islam, and Jews come thither from all 
parts of the world to pray to Abraham and Sarah. At 
Ramah, the burial place of Rachel, 40 there was a holy 
stone upon her grave. On the grave of Deborah below 
Bethel there stood a tree known as Allon-bdkhuth, 'the 
holy tree of weeping.' 41 The burial place of Miriam was 
Kadesh, 'the sanctuary.' 42 Shechem, the burial-place 
of Joseph, 43 was the site of a holy tree called "the oak of 
the oracle," or "the oak of the diviners," 44 of a holy 
stone, 45 of an altar 46 and of a temple. 47 It was also a city 
of refuge. 48 Of similar character as sanctuaries were 
probably the graves of the heroes Tola, 49 Jair, 50 Ibzan, 51 
Elon, 52 and Abdon. 53 

The Book of Kings records with equal care the burial 
places of the kings of Judah. Ezek. 43 17-9 shows clearly 
that in his day these were seats of worship. The words 
"whoredom" and "abomination" that he applies to them 
are the ones that are commonly used by the prophets for 
the cult of strange gods. Isa. 65 13 f. speaks also of 
people who provoke Yahweh to his face continually, 
"who dwell among the graves and lodge in the vaults." 

The "uncleanness" of graves in the later Hebrew re- 
ligion is additional proof that originally they were places 
of worship. Among ancient peoples everything connected 
with death was "taboo," i.e., it could not be touched with- 

40 Gen. 35:19; I Sam. 10:2; Jer. 31:15. 

41 Gen. 35:8. 

42 Num. 20:1. 

43 Josh. 24:32. 

"Gen. 12:6; Deut. 11:30; Judg. 9:37. 

46 Josh. 24:26f. 

48 Gen. 12:7; 22:9. 

47 Judg. 9:4, 46. 
"Josh. 20:7. 

48 Judg. 10:lf. 
60 Judg. 10:3-5. 
51 Judg. 12:8-10. 
"Judg. 12:1 If. 
"Judg. 12:13-15. 



x WORSHIP OF THE DEAD BY ISRAEL 253 

out falling under the influence of a spirit. 54 Among the 
Semites the word for taboo was kddhosh, which we com- 
monly render "holy." Into the religion of Yahweh many 
ancient Semitic taboos were taken up, and continued to 
be regarded as u holy." Other taboos were felt to belong 
to inferior spirits or to rival gods, and were now pro- 
nounced "unclean." Thus foreign rites make Yahweh's 
land "unclean," 55 and alien worship makes the Temple 
"unclean." 56 Now, as we have just seen, the graves of 
the patriarchs and heroes were at first regarded as 
"holy," and were favourite places of sacrifice. Archae- 
ology shows that in pre-exilic times the dead were buried 
without hesitation within the city walls or even in 
houses, 57 but in later literature dead bodies and graves 
render anyone who touches them ceremonially "un- 
clean." 58 Bones of the dead defile the altar of Yah- 
weh. 59 This change from "holy" to "unclean" can be 
explained only as due to a growing consciousness that 
the ancient sanctity of tombs was inconsistent with the 
sole authority of Yahweh. Hence corpses and every- 
thing connected with them were placed under a ban. 
That this is the correct interpretation of the taboo is 
shown (1) by the fact that it is called "uncleanness for 
a spirit" (nefesh), eo which shows that the uncleanness 
does not come from the corpse but from the spirit as- 
sociated with it; (2) by the fact that priests, who are 
specially connected with the worship of Yahweh, are 
allowed to "defile themselves for a spirit" only in a few 
exceptional cases, 61 and that nazirites are not allowed to 
defile themselves at all. 62 

64 Jevons, Introduction to the History of Religion, chap. vi. 

BB Jer. 2:7, 23; 3:2, 9; Ezek. 36:18. 

68 Jer. 7:30; Ezek. 43:7, 9. 

67 Palestine Exploration Fund, Quarterly Statement, 1902, p. 347. This cus- 
tom is also attested by I Sam. 25:1; 28:3; I Kings 2:10, 34; 11:43; 14:31, 
etc.; II Kings 21:18, 26; Ezek. 43:7f. 

68 Deut. 26:14; Ezek. 43:7f.; Num. 19:11; Matt. 23:27. 

59 I Kings 13:2; II Kings 23:14, 16, 20. 

80 Lev. 21:1, 11; 22:4; Num. 5:2; 6:6, 11; 9:6f., 10; 19:llf.; Hag. 2:13. 

"Lev. 21:1-4, 11. 

"Num. 6:6. 



254 SPIRITISM x 

i. Sacrifice to the Dead. — Among the Hebrews the 
persistence of sacrifice to the dead down to a late time 
is attested by the confession in Deut. 26:14, "I have not 
given thereof for the dead." According to Josephus, 63 
the tomb of David was filled with treasures; and accord- 
ing to II Chron. 16:14, Asa's tomb was filled with sweet 
odours and spices, and they made a very great burning for 
him. This was the usual custom at the burial of kings. 64 
Ps. 106:28 declares of the forefathers, "They ate the 
sacrifices of the dead." Tob. 4:17 commends offerings 
to the dead: "Pour out thy bread on the tomb of the 
just"; and similarly Ecclus. 7:33: "A gift hath grace in 
the sight of every living man, so from a dead man keep 
not back grace." 65 Others mention the cult of the dead 
as practised in their day, but regard it as useless and 
wicked. 66 In later Judaism the saying of the Kaddish 
by the oldest son takes the place of the ancient sacrifices. 67 

The existence of sacrificial funeral feasts among the 
Hebrews is attested by Jer. 16:7: "Neither shall men 
break bread for a mourner to comfort him for the dead, 
nor shall one give him the cup of consolation to drink on 
account of his father or his mother" ; also by Ezek. 24 117 
(emended text) , "Eat not the bread of mourning." Since 
eating these offerings involved participation in the wor- 
ship of another god than Yahweh, it rendered one 
"unclean." 68 

Among the Hebrews the duty of bringing sacrifices and 
libations rested upon the oldest son. Hence the double 
portion given to the firstborn. 69 Childlessness was re- 
garded as the greatest possible misfortune, 70 and the 
proper blessing for a bride was, "Be thou the mother 

"Ant., XIII, 8, 4; XVI, 7, 1; War, I, 2, 5. 
6 *Jer. 34:5; II Chron. 21:19. 
86 Cf. II Mace. 12:42ff. 

86 Ecclus. 30:18 (in the Greek); Ep. Jer., vss. 31f.; Wisd. 14:15; 19-3; Sibylline 
Oracles, viii. 382-384; Jubilees, 22:17. 

87 Margoliouth, Hastings, Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, I, 459. 
88 Hos. 9:4; Deut. 26:14. 

68 Deut. 21:15ff. 

70 Gen. 30:1; I Sam. l:5f. 



\ 



x WORSHIP OF THE DEAD BY ISRAEL 255 

of thousands of ten thousands." 71 Yahweh punished 
men even in the other world by cutting off their pos- 
terity, 72 and victors destroyed an enemy's children in 
order that his ghost might receive no offerings. If a 
man had no sons by his first wife, he took a second wife, 
or his wife gave him her female slaves as concubines. 73 
If these means failed, a slave, or some person outside 
of the family, was adopted as a son, and was given the 
inheritance on condition that he kept up the ancestral 
rites. 74 If this device also failed, the nearest male rela- 
tive of the deceased was required to take his widow and 
raise up seed for him. 75 This painful anxiety to secure a 
son is explainable only by the desire to obtain after death 
those gifts without which one's soul could not rest. 

;. Prayer to the Dead. — Among the Hebrews the la- 
ment was a regular and important part of the funeral cere- 
monies. 76 In it the members of the family were assisted 
by professional mourning men and women. 77 These 
people had a stock of laments adapted to various occa- 
sions that they chanted before the corpse. In the case 
of important persons special dirges were composed. 78 

Some lamentations are doubtless to be regarded as 
natural expressions of grief, but this will not explain 
official mournings in which the entire nation took part. 79 
The only tenable theory is that such laments were acts 
of homage paid to the departed. This view is confirmed 
by the following facts : ( 1 ) the Hebrew laments, like 
those of the ancient Arabs, were always addressed to the 
dead; 80 (2) similar laments were customary in the 

71 Gen. 24; 60. 

"Exod. 20:5; 34:7; Num. 14:18; Deut. 5:9. 

78 Gen. 16: If. 

"Gen. 15:2f. 

"Gen. 38:16; Deut. 25:5; Ruth 2:20; 3:13; 4:5. 

"Gen. 23:2; Deut. 21:13; II Sam. 19:4; I Kings 13:30; II Kings 13:14; 
Jer. 16:6; 22:10, 18; 34:5; Ezek. 24:16; Acts 9:39. 

T7 II Chron. 35:25; Jer. 9:17f.; Am. 5:16. 

"II Sam. 1:17; 3:33. 

n E.g., Gen. 50:7-10; Deut. 34:8; Num. 20:29; Judg. 11:40; I Sam. 25:1; 
28:3; II Sam. 1:12; 3:32; Zech. 12:10-14. 

*>Cf. II Sam. 1:26; 3:34; Jer. 22:18; 34:5. 



256 SPIRITISM x 

worship of the gods; 81 (3) lamentation, like other acts 
of mourning, was repugnant to Yahweh as part of the 
cult of rival divinities. 82 Isa. 63:16, "Thou art our 
father, though Abraham knoweth us not, and Israel doth 
not acknowledge us," seems to imply invocation of the 
patriarchs by some at least of the nation. This cult has 
not completely died out even from modern Judaism. 

Necromancy is a form of invocation of the dead. It 
was common in the time of Saul, although it was re- 
garded as inconsistent with the religion of Yahweh. 83 
Isaiah still had reason to denounce it: "When they say 
unto you, Consult the ghosts and the familiar spirits that 
gibber and moan, give this answer: Should not a people 
rather consult its God? On behalf of the living, should 
men consult the dead?" 84 This practice flourished 
in the time of Manasseh, 85 and Josiah made an effort 
to abolish it. 86 It seems to be mentioned also in Isa. 
57:9; 65 :4. The prohibition of necromancy by Deuter- 
onomy 87 and by the Holiness Code 88 shows that it was 
common in the latter days of the monarchy, but that it 
was regarded by the religious leaders of the nation as irre- 
concilable with the exclusive worship of Yahweh. 

From the foregoing survey it appears that the earliest 
Hebrew beliefs in regard to the soul were identical with 
those of the other Semites, and that the cult of the dead 
was one of the most ancient and most firmly intrenched 
forms of religion among the Hebrews. The religion of 
Yahweh encountered no more formidable rival, and cen- 
turies of conflict were necessary before it was finally over- 
come. 

81 Cf. Judg. 11:40 with Ezek. 8:14; Zech. 12:11. 
82 Deut. 26:14; Hos. 9:4; Am. 6:10. 

83 I Sam. 28:7-9. 

84 Isa. 8:19; cf. 19:3; 28:15, 18; 29:4. 
86 II Kings 21:6. 

88 II Kings 23:24. 

87 Deut. 18:11. 

88 Lev. 19:31; 20:6, 27. 



CHAPTER XI 

EARLY OPPOSITION TO WORSHIP OF THE DEAD BY ISRAEL 

In chapter VIII attention was called to the conception of 
the soul which the Hebrews inherited from their Semitic 
forefathers. In chapter IX it was shown how, through 
the conquest of Canaan, the Babylonian doctrine of Sheol 
was superimposed upon the ancient belief in spirits. We 
must now consider how this inheritance of animistic ideas 
from pre-Mosaic times was affected by the religion of 
Yahweh. 

a. The Primitive Conception of Spirits Was Unaffected 
by Early Yahwistn. — The Mosaic doctrine of God was 
not monotheism but monolatry. It did not say, "Thou 
shalt not believe that there are other gods," but "Thou 
shalt have no other gods besides me." The god of 
Moses bore the personal name Yahweh, which shows 
that he was only one of a class of supernatural beings. 
All the divinities of primitive Semitic heathenism were 
still regarded as real persons, only Israel was forbidden 
to worship them. 1 In the same way belief in the exist- 
ence of spirits of the dead was left undisturbed by the 
religion of Yahweh. All the animistic conceptions held by 
the primitive Semites in common with other ancient peo- 
ples were incorporated bodily into the Hebrew religion, 
and remained unchanged down to the times of the proph- 
ets. Mosaism had no new eschatology of the individual; 
it simply accepted the ideas that it found on the ground. 
For this reason there is nothing new in the pre-prophetic 
period to add to the account of the earliest Hebrew con- 

*Cf. Exod. 15:11; Judg. 11:24; I Kings 11:33; II Kings l:2f.; 3:27; Deut. 
4:19; 29:26; 32:8 in the Greek. 

257 



258 SPIRITISM xi 

ceptions of the soul that has been given in the preceding 
chapters. 

b. The Worship of Spirits Was from the First Forbid- 
den by Yahweh. — The God whom Moses proclaimed did 
not deny the existence of other gods, but he did deny their 
right to receive the worship of Israel. The command- 
ment "Thou shalt have no other gods besides me," which 
the Deuteronomic Decalogue 2 places at the head of Yah- 
weh's fundamental requirements, stands also at the head 
of the original Book of the Covenant, which has been 
preserved by J in Exod. 34 114 and by E in Exod. 21 123. 
It is universally conceded that this was one of the doc- 
trines of primitive Mosaism. In like manner, although 
Yahweh did not deny the existence of spirits of the dead, 
worship of them in any form whatsoever he sternly pro- 
hibited. By the ancient Hebrews the shades were known 
as elohim, 'gods/ 3 and received all the acts of homage 
that were paid to other divinities; 4 consequently they 
were included in the general prohibition of the worship of 
other gods that lay at the foundation of the Mosaic relig- 
ion. Yahweh was "a jealous God," who would not tolerate 
the cult of ancestors, heroes, or other spirits, any more 
than he would tolerate the cult of the nature gods, tribal 
gods, or any of the other b e( dlim of the Semitic world. 

With the first proclamation of Yahweh the doom of 
ancestor-worship was sealed; but, as was to be expected, a 
long conflict was necessary before it was finally eradicated 
from Israel. This form of religion was firmly established 
among the Hebrews in pre-Mosaic times, and the conquest 
of Canaan tended only to confirm it. As the Book of 
Judges and the early prophets repeatedly inform us, 
"Israel served the b e 'dlim," and among thes^ b e 'dlim were 
the ancestors and heroes who from time immemorial had 
been worshipped in Canaan. 

Gradually, however, the true genius of the Mosaic 

3 Deut. 5:7; Exod. 20:3. 
•I Sam. 28:13. 
* See p. 2S4ff. 



xi EARLY OPPOSITION 259 

religion asserted itself. Through the efforts of the 
nazirites, Levites, judges, seers, and other religious 
enthusiasts, Yahweh finally triumphed over spirits of 
the dead as well as over the other h e< alim. By the be- 
ginning of the period of the monarchy his victory was 
complete ; the local divinities were no longer worshipped 
by the majority of the nation, and the supreme authority 
of Yahweh was recognized in all parts of the land. From 
I Sam. 28 19 it appears that Saul, who owed his throne to 
the choice of Yahweh, 5 and who had himself received the 
spirit of Yahweh, 6 made an effort to exterminate those 
who had familiar spirits and necromancers; and was so 
successful that, when, toward the close of his reign, he 
wished to consult a medium, he had difficulty in finding 
one. The fact that this medium was a woman shows 
that invocation of the dead was already discredited in 
Israel. Dying superstitions usually linger among women 
after they have been abandoned by men. The command- 
ment of the Book of the Covenant, "Thou shalt not suffer 
a sorceress to live," 7 is also directed against necromantic 
arts; and, if the text be sound, shows that these survived 
chiefly among women. The protestation of the bringer 
of the tithe in Deut. 26:14, "I have not given thereof for 
the dead," is probably a fragment of a liturgy that is far 
older than Deuteronomy, and the prohibitions of 
necromancy in Deut. 18:11 and the Holiness Code 8 are 
also survivals of ancient legislation. It was, therefore, 
no new doctrine that Isaiah taught: "When they say 
unto you consult the ghosts and the familiar spirits that 
gibber and moan, give this answer : Should not a people 
rather consult its God? On behalf of the living, 
should men consult the dead?" 9 
c. Yahweh Appropriated the Functions of the Dead, 

•I Sam. 10:1. 

9 1 Sam. 10:10; 19:23. 

7 Exod. 22:18. 

•Lev. 19:31; 20:6, 27. 

•Is*. 8:19. 



260 SPIRITISM xi 

— The method by which Yahweh triumphed over the 
b e 'dlim of Canaan was not by destroying them but by 
absorbing them. The name ba'al became a synonym of 
Yahweh, and the b e) dlim were regarded as his local mani- 
festations. The ancient shrines of the land became his 
shrines, and the legends connected with them were retold 
as stories of his dealings with the patriarchs. The 
agricultural ritual and the harvest festivals of the b e< dlim 
were reconsecrated to his service. 10 

The same process is seen in Yahweh's relation to spirits 
of the dead. He conquered them by assuming their 
functions and claiming their rites. Oracular indication 
through physical objects became his work in the sacred 
lot of Urim and Thummim. 11 Disease and insanity were 
now ascribed to his activity. 12 Genius and inspiration of 
every sort were traced to the operation of his spirit. 13 
The revealing of the future through prophets became his 
exclusive prerogative. It was only when he refused to 
answer Saul by dreams, or by Urim, or by prophets, that 
Saul was constrained to seek the help of inferior spirits. 
The avenging of shed blood was now assumed by him. 14 
Violation of tombs was an affront to him. 15 Care for 
the widow and orphaned children became his responsi- 
bility. 16 The fulfilment of a father's blessing or curse 
became his concern. 17 

d. Yahweh Appropriated the Cult of the Dead. — 
The shrines of Canaan that had formerly been consecrated 
to the cult of the dead were now, like the high places of 
all the other b e 'dlim, appropriated by Yahweh. The 
tombs of Sarah and Abraham, of Israel, of Rachel, of 
Deborah, of Joseph, of Miriam, and of numerous local 

10 See Paton, The Early Religion of Israel, (1910), chap. v. 
"I Sam. 14:41; 28:6; Deut. 33:8. 
"Num. 12:10; I Sam. 16:14; 25:38; I Kings 17:20. 

13 Exod. 28:3; 31:3; Num. 27:18; Judg. 6:34; 11:29; 13:25; 14:6, 19; 15:14; 
I. Sam. 11:6. 

"Gen. 4:llff.; II Sam. 21:lf.; Deut. 21:1-9. 

"Amos 2:1. 

"Exod. 20:6; 22:22. 

"Gen. 9:25-27; 27:27-29, 39-40; 49:2-27. 



xi EARLY OPPOSITION 261 

heroes, became his sanctuaries, and their holiness was 
now explained as due, not to the fact that the forefathers 
were buried there, but that they had been the scenes of 
his manifestation in the past. Far from being "unclean" 
in early times graves were places of peculiar sanctity, 
near which it was most fitting that Yahweh should be 
worshipped. Caves owed their holiness to the fact that 
they were used as places of burial, 18 and it is noteworthy 
that the original sanctuary of Yahweh at Sinai was a 
cave. 19 The dark holy of holies of Solomon's temple, 
with its anteroom, in which a lamp was kept burning and 
bread and incense were offered, was the counterpart of 
an ancient Canaanite tomb. The holy trees, standing 
stones, and altars that stood beside the graves of ances- 
tors were all reconsecrated to the worship of Yahweh. 20 
Sacrifice is a rite that has meaning only in the cult of 
the dead. The blood, in which the life of the animal 
resides, is poured out in order that the shades may drink 
of it and renew their vigour. Offerings of food and drink 
are not needed by celestial deities, but are needed by 
spirits of the dead, and have been offered to them from 
the earliest times. It can hardly be doubted that bloody 
offerings and libations first arose in connection with ances- 
tor-worship, and were afterward extended to the cult of 
other divinities with whom they had no natural connec- 
tion. Their primitive association with the dead is shown 
by the fact that the blood of the victim was always poured 
upon the earth, so that it might sink down to the Under- 
world. In many ancient tombs channels were con- 
structed through which blood and libations descended to 
the buried person. In like manner the old Arabian altar 
had a ghabghab, or pit, beneath it into which blood was 
poured and offerings were thrown. All such sacrifices 
and libations for the dead were appropriated by Yahweh. 

u Cf. Gen. 23:9. 

19 Exod. 33:22; I Kings 19:8f. 

20 Gen. 12:6f.; 22:9; 35:8, 20; Deut. 11:30; Josh. 24:26f.; Judg. 9:4, 37, 46. 



262 SPIRITISM xi 

The blood of the slain animal was still poured upon 
the ground, 21 although it was no longer offered to the 
gods of the Underworld. Beneath the altar of Solomon's 
temple was a channel cut out in the rock to receive the 
blood, and Elijah dug a trench for the blood around the 
altar that he constructed on Carmel; yet the sacrifices in 
both of these cases were rendered to Yahweh. The ritual 
of the red heifer in Num., chap. 19, bears clear evidence 
of having been borrowed from the cult of the dead. 22 
The same is true perhaps of the goat for Azazel, 23 and 
of a number of other sacrificial rites that have found a 
place in the official religion of post-exilic Judaism. From 
this it appears that everything that was clearly connected 
with the worship of the dead was already in the pre- 
prophetic period claimed by Yahweh as his due. 

e. Rites of the Dead That Were not Clearly Acts of 
Worship Were Still Permitted, but They Rendered One 
Unclean, — Burial, and such customs as tearing off the gar- 
ments, girding on sackcloth, covering the head, making 
cuttings in the flesh, cutting the hair, covering oneself 
with dust or ashes, lamentation and fasting 24 had lost 
much of their primitive religious significance as early as 
the pre-prophetic period, and seemed to be merely acts 
of mourning; consequently these were tolerated by the 
early Hebrew religion, and no effort was made to take 
them away from the dead. At the same time it was 
felt that these ceremonies were in a way connected with 
u other gods," and therefore rendered one "unclean," 
i. e., debarred one from taking part in the public worship 
of Yahweh. Hosea, speaking of the exiles in Egypt 
and in Assyria, says: "Their sacrifices shall be unto 
them as the bread of mourners; all that eat thereof shall 
be polluted," 25 and Amos (6:10) says that it is not per- 

"Exod. 29:12; Lev. 4:7, 18; 17:13; Deut. 12:16. 

23 H. P. Smith, in American Journal of Theology, April, 1909. 

38 Lev. 16:26. 

3 * See pp. 248ff. 

"Hos. 9:4. 



xi EARLY OPPOSITION 263 

mitted to make mention of the name of Yahweh when 
bringing a corpse out of a house. In Deut. 26:14 the 
bringer of the tithe says: "I have not eaten thereof in 
my mourning, neither have I put away thereof being un- 
clean, nor given thereof for the dead." That these rites 
rendered one "unclean" on account of their association 
with the cult of the dead, is evident from the technical 
expression of the Law "unclean for a spirit." 26 In these 
cases early Yahwism made a compromise with ancestor- 
worship that it would not make in the case of necromancy 
and sacrifice to the dead. 

It appears, accordingly, that the pre-prophetic religion 
of Israel did not change the primitive Semitic concep- 
tions of the future life; yet in its attack upon ancestor- 
worship it prepared the way for the prophetic denial of 
the intelligence and power of the dead, through which 
eventually ancient animistic conceptions were destroyed. 

/. Sheol Stood Outside of the Authority of Yahweh. 
— The recognition that there were other gods of other 
peoples led naturally to the belief that foreign lands 
stood outside of Yahweh's sphere of influence, and that 
his activity was limited for the most part to the land 
of Canaan. 27 In a similar manner Sheol was regarded 
as lying outside of his rule. It was a foreign land, 
presided over by its own gods, the spirits of the dead, 
and over its border Yahweh never passed to exert his 
authority. In the creation narrative of J it is not men- 
tioned along with "earth and heaven" as created by 
Yahweh. 28 Even in the late Priestly account 29 it is 
omitted from the works of Elohim, and the same is true 
of II Esdras 6:iff. Nowhere in the Old Testament is 
Yahweh's creation of Sheol referred to, and Wis. 1 113 
asserts, "God made not death" (cf. 2:24). Not until 
the Middle Ages did the Jewish rabbis infer from the 

'•Lev. 21:1, 11; 22:4; Num. 5:2, etc. 

"Cf. Gen. 4:14; I Sam. 26:19£.; II Sam. 15:8; II Kings 5:15, 17. 

"Gen. 2:46 ff. 

"Gen. 1:1—2 :4a. 



264 SPIRITISM xi 

lack of the formula, "and God saw that it was good," 
in Gen. 1 :6-8, that Sheol was created on the second day. 30 
Yahweh was conceived as dwelling in heaven, 31 whence 
he came down to exert his authority on earth, but never 
once in pre-prophetic literature is he said to descend into 
Sheol, or in any way to show his power there. 

Since Yahweh was powerless either to bless or to curse 
in Sheol, worship of him ceased of necessity when one 
entered that land. The later literature repeatedly as- 
serts that he cannot be served there, and this is undoubt- 
edly an echo of earlier thought. Thus Ps. 6 15 declares, 
"In death there is no remembrance of thee; in Sheol who 
shall give thee thanks"; Isa. 38:1 8f., "Sheol cannot 
praise thee, Death cannot celebrate thee. . . . The liv- 
ing, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day." 

So long as Sheol stood outside of Yahweh's jurisdic- 
tion, no radical change could arise in Israel's concep- 
tion of the future life. The primitive Semitic and the 
Babylonian eschatologies held their own without inter- 
ference until the time when Yahweh was known to be 
the universal God, whose authority extended to Sheol 
as well as to all other parts of the universe. Then at 
last these venerable beliefs began to give place to a 
worthier idea of the future life. 

Because of this total lack of religious or ethical ele- 
ments in the conception of Sheol, the ancient Hebrew 
dreaded the future life as much as did all the other 
Semites. Death seemed to him wholly evil. His one 
desire was that he might live long in the land, enjoy peace 
and prosperity, and have numerous descendants. His 
hope never extended into the other world. Even in late 
times death was regarded as exclusion from the presence 
and the care of Yahweh. 32 

g. Retribution Was Limited to the Present Life. — 

30 Eisenmenger, Entdecktes Judenthum, II, 326. 
81 Gen. 11:5; Exod. 24:10; I Kings 22:19. 
"Isa. 38:18; Ps. H5:16f.; 6:5f.; 30:10. 



xi EARLY OPPOSITION 265 

Yahweh's rewards of the righteous and his punishments 
of the wicked were limited to this life. To those who 
kept his commandments he promised that their days 
should be long upon the land which Yahweh their God 
gave them, 33 that their bread and their water should be 
blessed, and sickness should be kept away from them, that 
none should cast their young or be barren, that all their 
enemies should be defeated before them, and their border 
should be widely extended. 34 Those who broke his com- 
mandments were punished with sudden death, 35 with loss 
of children and property, with sickness, misfortune, and 
invasion by enemies. 36 Nowhere in pre-exilic literature 
is any reward of virtue or any punishment of sin antic- 
ipated in Sheol. The righteous Hezekiah is represented 
as saying, "I shall go unto the gates of Sheol. ... I 
shall not see Yahweh in the land of the living. . . . They 
that go down into the Pit cannot hope for thy faithful- 
ness"; 37 and Ps. 88:4f. says: "I am counted with them 
that go down into the Pit, I am as a man that hath no 
help : cast off among the dead, like the slain that lie in the 
grave, whom thou rememberest no more, and they are cut 
off from thy hand." Both of these passages are probably 
late, still they preserve the thought of the early Hebrew 
religion. 

h. Collective Retribution — In lack of a belief in fu- 
ture rewards and punishments the justice of Yahweh was 
vindicated by means of the theory of collective retribu- 
tion. The penalty of the sinful father, which he escaped 
by dying, was visited upon his living descendants. The 
early Hebrews brought into Canaan as an inheritance 
from primitive Semitic times a strong sense of the soli- 
darity of the family and of the clan. Tribes were spoken 
of in the singular, as Israel, Moab, Ammon, and the iden- 

"Exod. 20:12. 

"Exod. 23:25-31. 

"Gen. 38:7ff.; I Sam. 6:19ff.; 25:39; II Sam. 6:6ff. 

"Gen. 44:16; Judg. 9:56f.; II Sam. 16:8. 

S7 Isa. 38:10f., 18. 



266 SPIRITISM | xi 

tity of the individual was lost in the group. The logical 
corollary of this conception was the assumption of collec- 
tive responsibility for the sins of individuals. Saul sought 
to kill David's relatives on his account, 38 and annihilated 
the clan of Ahimelech the priest because he had be- 
friended David. 39 David proposed to cut off the 
entire family of Nabal because of the insolence of the 
head of the house. 40 The seven sons of Saul were 
hanged because of his attack on the Gibeonites. 41 The 
sons of Naboth were slain with him. 42 

It seemed eminently natural, accordingly, that Yahweh 
should deal with the group rather than the individual, 
and should bring the punishment of the sinner, or the 
reward of the righteous, upon his family, his clan, or 
his nation, rather than upon himself. Yahweh "visited 
the penalty of the fathers upon the children, upon the 
third and upon the fourth generation of them that hated 
him." 43 The Canaanites were enslaved because of the 
guilt of their remote ancestor. 44 Pharaoh and his house 
were plagued because he had taken Sarah. 45 The wombs 
of the house of Abimelech were closed for the same 
offence. 46 The firstborn of Egypt were smitten for the 
sin of Pharaoh. 47 Amalek was destroyed because its 
forefathers attacked Israel. 48 Dathan and Abiram were 
engulfed with their wives, their sons, and their little 
ones. 49 Achan was slain with his sons and his daughters, 
his oxen and his asses, his sheep and all that he had. 50 
The sin of Eli was visited upon his descendants. 51 The 

38 1 Sam. 22:1, 3f. 

89 1 Sam. 22:16. 

"I Sam. 25:22. 

"II Sam. 21:6ff. 

42 II Kings 9:26. 

"Exod. 20:5. 

"Gen. 9:24f. 

"Gen. 12:17 J. 

"Gen. 20:18 E. 

* 7 Exod. 12:29 J. 

"Exod. 17:16; I Sam. I5:2f. 

"Num. 16:27ff JE. 

80 Josh. 7:24 J. 

81 1 Sam. 2:31. 



xi EARLY OPPOSITION 267 

blood of Abner fell upon the father's house of Joab. 52 
David's child was killed and the sword never departed 
from his house because of his sin. 53 Solomon was told, 
"I will surely rend the kingdom from thee. . . . Not- 
withstanding in thy days I will not do it, for David thy 
father's sake; but I will rend it out of the hand of thy 
son." 54 The house of Jeroboam was cursed for the sin 
of its founder, 55 so also that of Baasha, 56 and of Ahab. 57 
In an indirect way the blessing or cursing of descendants 
reacted upon forefathers because it affected the cult that 
was paid to their spirits. If children were cut off, the 
spirit was deprived of the offerings that were necessary 
for its repose. Only in this round-about manner did the 
vengeance of Yahweh reach the sinner in Sheol. 

"II Sam. 3:29. 

M II Sam. 12:10, 14f. 

"I Kings 11:111 

M I Kings 14:10. 

••I Kings 16:3. 

57 1 Kings 21:21. See Lohr, Socialismus u. Individualismus im A. T. 



CHAPTER XII 

PROPHETIC AND LEGAL DENIAL OF THE VITALITY OF 

SPIRITS 

In the period of the prophets we possess for the first 
time contemporary written records. In the previous 
periods we have been compelled to reconstruct the con- 
ception of the future life by comparison of survivals in 
Israel with the phenomena of other Semitic religions, but 
from the eighth century B.C. onward we have as historical 
sources books that were written by the prophets them- 
selves and law-codes that were inspired by their teaching. 
The writings of these great men in chronological order are 
as follows: — Amos (760 B.C.), Hosea (750), Isaiah, 
chapters 1-32 (740-700), Micah (722-680), Jeremiah 
(624-586), Nahum (606), Habakkuk (605), Ezekiel 
(592-570), Obadiah (after 586), Isaiah, chapters 40-55 

(546). 

The legislation of Deuteronomy was written out about 
650 B.C. in the reign of Manasseh, and makes its first 
appearance in history in the book of the law discovered 
in the time of Josiah (II Kings, 22 :8) and adopted in the 
national assembly described in II Kings, 23. It shows 
throughout the influence of the teaching of the prophets 
of the foregoing Assyrian period. The Holiness Code 
in Lev. 17-26 was committed to writing about 600 B.C., 
shortly before the Exile, and is first quoted by the Pro- 
phet Ezekiel. It depends both upon the prophets of 
the Assyrian period and upon Deuteronomy. 

During this period Israel stood under the rule, first 
of Assyria, and then of Babylon, and was consequently 
exposed to the influence of the Assyro-Babylonian civiliza- 

268 



xii VITALITY OF SPIRITS DENIED 269 

tion. This may have strengthened the old Babylonian 
beliefs concerning Sheol that had come to the Hebrews in 
an earlier period, but it brought no new elements into 
their conception of the future life. All that was new in 
the thought of this period was due to the teaching of the 
prophets. 

The literary prophets from Amos onward differed 
from their predecessors chiefly in the emphasis that they 
laid upon the moral character of Yahweh. The earlier 
seers knew that Yahweh had ethical attributes, but they 
did not make these fundamental in their conception of him. 
The literary prophets, however, perceived that righteous- 
ness was Yahweh's central attribute. From this it fol- 
lowed that he was different in kind from the gods of 
other nations, who were destitute of moral qualities. The 
gods of the heathen, being unethical, were no gods 
at all. Instead of being elohim, 'powers,' they were 
elilim, 'feeble ones,' or, as our version renders it, 'vani- 
ties.' Yahweh was the only God, because he alone was 
holy. Thus for the first time in the history of Israel, 
theoretical monotheism was attained, not as among other 
peoples by the avenue of philosophical reflection, but by 
the avenue of the moral judgment. This new and higher 
conception of the nature of Yahweh could not fail to 
modify the ancient conception of the future life. 

a. The Activity of the Dead Was Denied. — The same 
process by which the "other gods" were degraded from 
mighty beings, the rivals of Yahweh, to "feeble ones" 
is seen in the case of spirits of the dead. In pre-prophetic 
days they were believed to possess such large powers that 
the temptation was strong to render them some of the 
worship due to Yahweh alone; in the prophetic period 
they were stripped of their energy so completely that they 
became mere shadows, unable to help or to hurt, to whom 
it was futile either to pray or to offer sacrifice. 

This development shows itself conspicuously in the 
prophetic denial of the independent vitality of the human 



2/o SPIRITISM xii 

soul. In Semitic and early Hebrew anthropology nefesh 
and ruah were synonymous terms for 'spirit' ; in pro- 
phetic anthropology ruah was distinguished from nefesh 
as the vital principle and the seat of the higher faculties. 
It was imparted by God to the nefesh during life, but re- 
claimed by him at death. The germ of this idea is found 
in the Yahwistic narrative of Gen. 2:7, where Yahweh 
breathes into man's nostrils the breath of life and he be- 
comes "a living nefesh" but the thought is not developed 
in Hebrew literature until after the Exile. Thus in Isa. 
42 15 we read, "He giveth breath to the people upon it, 
and spirit to them that walk therein" ; Ps. 104 :2oJ ., u Thou 
gatherest in their breath, they die, and return to their 
dust: thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created"; 
Job 27 :3, "My life is yet whole in me, and the spirit of 
God is in my nostrils"; 32:8, "There is a spirit in man, 
and the breath of Shaddai giveth them understanding" ; 
33 .-4, "The spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of 
Shaddai giveth me life"; 34:14, "If he gather unto him- 
self his spirit and his breath, all flesh shall perish to- 
gether"; Eccles. 12:7, "The dust returns to the earth 
as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it." 
In these passages the vitality of the human soul depends 
so completely upon the indwelling spirit of God, that ac- 
tivity ceases when the divine breath is withdrawn. All 
individual ruhoth are absorbed in the one ruah of 
Yahweh, and all that is left of a man after death is a 
nefesh, or 'breath,' from which knowledge and feeling 
have departed. Thus the religion of the prophets cut 
the root of ancestor-worship by denying the conscious 
existence of the dead. 

In striking contrast to the ancient doctrine which as- 
cribed interest in the living and superhuman powers to the 
dead, the late prophetic and subsequent literature 
denies all activity to them. Abaddon, 'destruction,' be- 
comes one of the names of Sheol. 1 In Isa. 38:11, if the 

*Job 26:6; Ps. 88:11; Prov. 15:11; 27:20. 



xii VITALITY OF SPIRITS DENIED 271 

text be sound, it is called he del t 'cessation.' In Ps. 
88:12 it is "the land of forgetfulness." Ezekiel 26:21 
says of Tyre, when she goes down to Sheol, "I will make 
thee a destruction, and thou shalt be no more: thou 
shalt be sought for, yet thou shalt never be found again" ; 
Isa 63:16, "Thou art our father, though Abraham 
knoweth us not, and Israel doth not acknowledge us"; 
Job 7:9-11, "As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth 
away, so he that goeth down to Sheol shall come up no 
more"; Job 14:21, "His sons come to honour, and he 
knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he per- 
ceiveth it not of them"; Job 17 :i 5f ., "Where then is my 
hope? and as for my hope, who shall see it? It shall go 
down to the bars of Sheol, when once there is rest in the 
dust"; Ps. 94:17, "Unless Yahweh had been my help, 
my soul had soon dwelt in silence"; Eccles. 9 :5f., 10, 
"The living know that they shall die, but the dead know 
not anything, neither have they any more a reward, for 
the memory of them is forgotten. As well their love as 
their hatred and their envy is now perished, neither have 
they any more a portion for ever in anything that is done 
under the sun. . . . For there is no work, nor device, nor 
knowledge, nor wisdom in Sheol, whither thou goest"; 
Ecclus. 3o:i8f., "Good things poured upon a mouth that 
is closed, are as messes of meat laid upon a grave. 
What can an offering profit a shade, for it can 
neither eat nor smell"; 38:20-23, "Give not thy heart 
unto sorrow . . . him thou wilt not profit, and thou 
wilt hurt thyself. . . . When the dead is at rest, let his 
remembrance rest, and be comforted for him when his 
spirit departeth from him." Most of these passages are 
later than the period that we are considering, but they 
preserve the negative attitude of prophetism toward the 
existence in Sheol. 

The old belief that the dead could not worship Yahweh 
persisted in this period, but for a different reason. In 
pre-prophetic times Yahweh could not be honoured in 



272 SPIRITISM xii 

Sheol because his authority did not extend thither, but 
in prophetic times it was because the dead had not suffi- 
cient energy to worship. Thus Ps:88:ii, "Shall thy 
loving-kindness be declared in the grave, or thy faithful- 
ness in Abaddon? Shall thy wonders be known in the 
dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetful- 
ness ?" Ps. 115:17, "The dead praise not Yahweh, neither 
any that go down into silence"; Ecclus. 17:27, "Who 
shall give praise to the Most High in the grave, instead 
of them which live and return thanks? Thanksgiving 
perisheth from the dead, as from one that is not: he 
that is in life and health shall praise the Lord" ; Bar. 
2:17, "The dead that are in the grave, whose spirit is 
taken from their bodies, will give unto the Lord neither 
glory nor righteousness." 

These statements must not be taken as an assertion 
of the annihilation of the soul at death. Disembodied 
spirits continued to exist, but their existence was empty 
of content. It was form without substance. Hence it is 
frequently compared to the feeble life of the soul in 
sleep. It is "the eternal sleep." 2 "Till the heavens be 
no more, they shall not awake or be roused out of their 
sleep" ; 3 "They sleep in the dust of the earth." 4 "Sleep" 
in these passages is not understood of the body in the 
grave, but of the unconscious, emotionless existence of 
the shades in Sheol. 

The foregoing discussion has made it clear that the at- 
titude of the religion of Yahweh to the eschatology of 
the individual, from the days of Moses to the completion 
of the law in the post-exilic Priestly Code, was essentially 
negative. Spirits of the dead, like "strange gods," were 
at first dangerous rivals of Yahweh, and his adherents 
laboured for their destruction. In this process the dead 
were deprived of one attribute after another, until at the 
end of the prophetic-legal development they had become 

»Jer. 51:39, 57; Ecclus. 46:19f. 
•Job 14:12. 
*Dan. 12:2. 



xii VITALITY OF SPIRITS DENIED 273 

powerless shadows, whose existence was destitute of every 
element that constituted life. Thus the victory over 
necrolatry was won, but at the cost of the extinction of 
even a rudimentary belief in immortality. Primitive 
Semitic animism had nothing in common with Yahwism, 
and it was necessary that it should perish before the struc- 
ture of a better faith could arise. 

b. Rites of Ancestor-worship Were Eliminated from 
the Worship of Yahweh. — The literary prophets saw 
clearly that Yahweh had triumphed over the h e< dlim by 
appropriating their cults, and that the result had been 
that in the popular conception Yahweh was no better 
than a ba'al. 5 In their effort to purify the conception of 
God they insisted that heathen elements should be purged 
out of the religion of Israel. This movement culminated 
in the demand of Deuteronomy that the high places, which 
originally had been seats of the worship of the b e< alim } 
should be abolished. These included the graves that in 
pre-prophetic times had been transformed into sanctuaries 
of Yahweh. Henceforth they were forbidden as places 
of worship. 6 This prohibition was intensified by the 
doctrine that graves were "unclean," and that they "de- 
filed" one who came in contact with them. 7 In like man- 
ner the masseboth, or 'standing stones' upon graves, 
that had been appropriated to the service of Yahweh in 
the earlier religion, were repudiated by the religion of 
the prophets. 8 

c. Rites of Mourning for the Dead Were Restricted. 
— The leaders of Hebrew thought felt instinctively that 
mourning for the dead, though not distinctly worship, 
was nevertheless closely allied to it; accordingly they 
bent their efforts to abolish this as far as possible. The 
process was a gradual one, that first came to clear ex- 
pression in the Law, and that was never carried through 

B Hos. 2:16. 

8 Dent. 12:1-14, etc. 

7 Ezek. 43:7f.; Num. 19:11. 

8 Deut. 16:22. 



274 SPIRITISM xii 

completely. Jeremiah and Ezekiel still regard shaving 
the head and making cuttings in the flesh as permissible, 9 
but Deut. 14:1 and the Holiness Code 10 prohibit both 
of these customs. The prophet, who stood in a peculiarly 
intimate relation with Yahweh, was forbidden to parti- 
cipate in mourning. 11 In like manner the priest was for- 
bidden to "defile himself for a spirit," except in the case 
of his nearest kin; 12 and the high priest was forbidden to 
"defile himself" under any circumstances. 13 The nazirite 
also was forbidden to come near a dead body. 14 In gen- 
eral, however, the primitive Semitic rites of mourning 
were too firmly intrenched to be dislodged by the Law, 
and most of them remained unchanged in later Judaism. 
d. Yahweh' 's Power Extended to Sheol. — With the 
recognition of the prophets that Yahweh was the only 
God, because he alone was righteous, went the belief that 
he was not limited to the land of Israel, but that the 
whole world stood under his rule. 15 In like manner 
Sheol was now believed to be included in his realm. 
"Though they dig into Sheol, thence shall mine hand 
take them," says the Lord by his prophet. 16 The demons 
of Sheol obey the command of Yahweh. 17 To the un- 
believing Ahaz Isaiah says, "Ask thee a sign from 
Yahweh, thy God, going deep unto Sheol." 18 The wrath 
of Yahweh reaches even unto the lowest Sheol; 19 his 
knowledge is deeper than Sheol; 20 "The shades tremble 
beneath the waters and the inhabitants thereof. Sheol 
is naked before him, and Abaddon hath no covering" ; 21 

»Jer. 16:6; Ezek. 7:18. 

» Lev. 19:27f.; 21:5. 

"Jer. 16:5; Ezek. 24:17. 

13 Lev. 21: If. 

"Lev. 21:10f. 

"Num. 6:6f. 

"Cf. Amos 1:3—2:3; 9:7. 

16 Amos 9:2. 

"Hos. 13:14. 

18 Isa. 7:11. 

"Deut. 32:22. 

*> Job 11:8. 

"Job 26:5f. 



xii VITALITY OF SPIRITS DENIED 275 

Yahweh knows the recesses of the deep and the gates of 
death have been revealed unto him; 22 "If I make my bed 
in Sheol, behold thou art there"; 23 "Sheol and Abaddon 
are before Yahweh." 24 

When Yahweh's power was thus extended to Sheol, 
it would seem as if the shades might have enjoyed fellow- 
ship with him, and as if there might have been the begin- 
ning of a higher doctrine of immortalty; but this exten- 
sion of God's power came too late. In the struggle 
against ancestor-worship the shades had been stripped 
so completely of their powers that, although Yahweh 
was now present among them, his presence did not help. 
They could not know him, and could not rejoice in his 
loving-kindness. Yahweh's power over Sheol also made 
it theoretically possible that he could deliver souls from 
that dark abode, and bring them back to life; but this 
doctrine never appears in the period that we are con- 
sidering. The statement that "Yahweh killeth and 
maketh alive" 25 refers not to resurrection but to recovery 
from dangerous illness, and the three raisings of the dead 
that are recorded in pre-exilic times are properly regarded 
as cases of suspended animation. 

e. Retribution Was Limited to the Present Life. — 
Like the pre-prophetic literature, the Prophets and the 
Law never promise rewards or punishments in the other 
world. This is not because Yahweh is unable to bestow 
them, but because the dead are unable to receive them. 
In their zeal to destroy the last vestiges of ancestor- 
worship, these writings go so far in their denial of life in 
Sheol that it becomes impossible for them to develop any 
doctrine of future retribution. Thus the paradox is ex- 
plained that the prophetic religion, which was pre-emi- 
nently a religion of hope, had no hope of immortality. 
Over the gate of Sheol, as the prophets conceived it, might 

"Job 38:16f. 

28 Ps. 139:8. 

M Prov. 15:11. 

M I Sam. 2:6; II Kings 5:7; De^t. 32:39, 



276 SPIRITISM xii 

have been written the words that Dante saw written 
over the entrance to Hell, "Lasciate ogni speranza voi 
che'ntrate." 

/. Collective Retribution. — The prophets held the 
same conception as the earlier religion that rewards and 
punishments due a man were allotted to his relatives and 
descendants. Amos announced as the punishment of 
Amaziah, "Thy wife shall be a harlot in the city, and 
thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword." 26 
These prophets always asserted that the penalty due the 
ruling classes should fall upon the nation as a whole. 27 
In like manner the rewards of virtue accrued to the family 
of the righteous. 

0. Ezekiefs Theory of Individual Retribution in the 
Present Life. — Ezekiel agreed with the prophets that 
preceded him that there was no activity of the dead in 
Sheol, and that all rewards and punishments were allotted 
men by Yahweh in the present life ; but he differed from 
his predecessors in the matter of collective retribution. 
Instead of the doctrine that the penalty of the parents is 
visited upon the children, he affirmed, "The soul that 
sinneth it shall die," and entered into an elaborate argu- 
ment to prove that every man received before death 
the appropriate reward of his deeds. 28 

This modification of the old prophetic doctrine was 
necessitated by the growth in Israel of a new sense of 
the worth of the individual. In the period of the later 
monarchy the old tribal organization began to break up, 
and during the Babylonian Exile it disappeared almost 
entirely. The religious experience of the prophets fos- 
tered individualism, and this left its mark in the legisla- 
tion of Deuteronomy and the Holiness Code which recog- 
nize new rights of wives, children, and slaves over against 
the head of the house, and which prohibit the punishment 
of children for the crimes of fathers, or of fathers for 

"Amos 7:17. 

17 Cf. Amos 8:8; Hos. 3:4; Isa. 5:25-30; Mic. 3:12. 

»Ezek. 18:4-32; 9:3-6; 14:12-20. 



xii VITALITY OF SPIRITS DENIED 277 

the crimes of children. 29 This new consciousness of 
the dignity of the individual human being found noble 
expression in the words of the Lord proclaimed by 
Ezekiel, "Behold all souls are mine; as the soul of the 
father, so also the soul of the son is mine," 30 and in 
the prediction of Jeremiah that in the Messianic age 
Yahweh would write his instruction in the heart of each 
individual, so that all should know him from the least 
unto the greatest. 31 

This new conception of the value of the individual 
made belief in the ancient theory of collective retribution 
impossible. Punishment of the nation for the sins of its 
rulers, or of children for the sins of their parents, no 
longer seemed consistent with the righteousness of 
Yahweh. Both Jeremiah and Ezekiel found the proverb 
current among the people, "The fathers have eaten sour 
grapes, and the children's teeth are blunted," that is to 
say, "We are suffering unjustly the penalty of our ances- 
tors' sins." 32 It was to meet this objection that Ezekiel 
formulated his doctrine of a complete rewarding or pun- 
ishing of each individual in the present life that necessi- 
tated no entail of guilt upon coming generations. 

This became the orthodox doctrine of the Zadokites, 
or Sadducees, the priestly aristocracy that claimed descent 
from Aaron through Zadok, the chief priest of Solomon's 
temple, 33 and that monopolized priestly functions in the 
temple of Zerubbabel. 34 Ezekiel himself belonged to 
this priesthood. In the New Testament the Sadducees 
appear as deniers that there is any conscious existence of 
the soul after death, and also as deniers of the Pharisaic 
doctrine of the resurrection of the spirit to a new life on 
earth in the body; "for the Sadducees say that there is no 

M Deut. 24:lf.; 15:12; 23:1S£.; 12:31; 18:10; Lev. 25:42; 18:21. 
*>Ezek. 18:4. 
81 Jer. 31:31-34. 
^ 82 Jer. 31:29; Erek. 18:2. 
38 I Kings 2:35 b. 
M Ezek. 44:15-16; P in Ex. 30:32f.; Num. 4:17, 20. 



278 SPIRITISM xii 

resurrection, neither angel nor spirit." 35 They preserved 
in a petrified form the doctrines of the Law and of the 
Prophets, that death was eternal sleep, and that all retri- 
bution came to men in the present life; with Ezekiel's 
modification, that each man received his own, and not 
some other man's recompense. 

This doctrine of the Sadducees was followed by most 
of the post-exilic Jewish literature. It appears in the 
Psalter, 36 in the Book of Proverbs, 37 in the arguments 
of the three friends against Job, 38 and in Ecclesiastes. 39 
Ecclesiasticus, 40 Tobit, and i Maccabees occupy the same 
position. It is the orthodox doctrine of Judaism so far 
as the Canonical Scriptures are concerned, for it is the 
doctrine of the Law, of the Prophets, and of most of 
the Writings. 

In spite of its popularity, Ezekiel's theory of indi- 
vidual retribution in the present life was open to for- 
midable objections. In the first place, experience taught 
that there was truth in the old theory of collective retri- 
bution. Children did suffer the consequences of their 
parents' sins. In the second place, it was contrary to 
experience that every man received in the present life the 
just recompense of his deeds. It was only too obvious 
that sinners frequently flourished and lived to a ripe old 
age, while the righteous suffered, and were cut off pre- 
maturely. In the third place^ Ezekiel's theory necessi- 
tated the assumption that happiness is the measure of 
goodness. If a man suffered all his life, he must be a 
great sinner. This was the logic of Job's friends. In 
view of his unparalleled misfortunes, they could only 
conclude that he was the chief of sinners. 41 Job knew 
that this was not true, and yet he suffered. Consequently, 

88 Mark 12:18-27; Acts 23:8. 

86 Ps. 34:19ff.; 37:25, 28; 80:10; 145:20, etc. 

^Prov. 3:33; 11:31. 

"•Job 4:8; 8:20; 11:20. 

8 »Eccles. 2:14f.; 3:21; 8:10; 9:2, 5f., 10; 12:5. 

"Ecclus. ll:26f.; 17:27; 30:17. 

"Job 4:7; 8:3ff.; 11:3-6. , 



xii VITALITY OF SPIRITS DENIED 279 

he was forced to give up Ezekiel's theory of individual 
retribution in the present life. 42 Other thinkers felt the 
same difficulty, and the old doctrine that the sins of the 
fathers were visited upon the children maintained itself 
in Jewish thought even down to New Testament times. 43 
The prophetic period thus ended in negation of the 
ancient beliefs in regard to the soul and in regard to 
retribution. The Prophets and the Law denied the con- 
scious existence of the soul after death, and Ezekiel and 
his successors denied collective rewards and punishments, 
but were unable to establish their theory of individual 
rewards and punishments in the present life. The ancient 
faith in ghost life and in tribal solidarity was gone, and 
there was nothing to put in its place. In the next period 
we shall see how, after the ground had been cleared of 
primitive Semitic animistic conceptions of the future life 
and primitive Semitic ideas of the unity of the clan, new 
doctrines of immortality arose that were based upon 
the righteousness of Yahweh and the need for its vindi- 
cation in another world, and that were suggested by 
contact, first with Persian and then with Greek thought. 

"Job 9:22-25; 10:3; 12:4-6; 16:11-17; 19:6-21; 21:7-34; 27:2. 
«Job 5:4; 17:5; 20:10; 27:14f.; Ps. 109:9-15; Dan. 9:7-16; Tob. 3:3; Judith 
7:28; Bar. 1:15-21; 2:26; 3-8; Matt. 23:35. 



CHAPTER XIII 

NEW THEORIES OF IMMORTALITY IN POST-EXILIC JUDAISM 

a. Persian Influence in the Doctrine of Resurrection 
of the Body. — From 536 to 333 B.C. the Jews stood un- 
der the rule of the Persian empire, and their religion was 
subjected to the influence of Persian thought. The doc- 
trine of the Satan, or "the Accuser," Greek Diabolos, 
English Devil, first appears in the post-exilic Books of 
Zechariah, Job, and Chronicles, 1 and is almost certainly 
a reflex of the Persian Zoroastrian doctrine of Angro- 
mainyu, or Ahriman, the Evil One, the antithesis of 
Ahura-mazda, or Ormazd, the Good God. The post- 
exilic doctrine of angels also probably shows Persian 
influence. In pre-exilic literature the "angel of Yahweh" 
is the local appearance-form of Yahweh himself, and has 
no personal name. In post-exilic literature orders of 
angels are recognized distinct from Yahweh, and they 
bear personal names such as Gabriel, Michael, Raphael, 
Uriel. 2 This also is closely similar to the teaching of 
the Avesta. In like manner the doctrine of the resurrec- 
tion of the body, which first appears in the Book of Job, 
is probably suggested by Persian eschatology, where this 
doctrine is highly developed. 

As we have seen before, there is no evidence for the 
existence of a doctrine of resurrection among the Baby- 
lonians or among the pre-exilic Hebrews. 3 The three 
cases of re-animation recorded in pre-exilic literature, 
Elijah's raising of the widow's son, Elisha's raising of 

iZech. 3:lf.; Job. 1:6-12; 2:1-7; I Chr. 21:1. 
8 Dan. 20:21; 10:13. 
» See pp. 221f., 246f. 

280 



xin NEW THEORIES OF IMMORTALITY^ 281 

the Shunammite boy, and the raising of a dead man 
through contact with the bones of Elisha, are all appar- 
ently instances of re-awakening rather than recalling from 
real death. The bodies had not been buried, and dissolu- 
tion had not set in, so that these cannot properly be classed 
under the head of resurrection. There was nothing, 
therefore, in pre-exilic literature to suggest the hope of 
resurrection to the author of Job. On the other hand, 
he lived toward the end of the Persian period, and was 
certainly influenced by Persian thought in other respects, 
so that there is no difficulty in thinking that he borrowed 
this doctrine also from Persian sources. The pre-exilic 
prophets had taught the lifelessness of Sheol, but also 
the perfect righteousness of Yahweh and his almighty 
power that extended even to Sheol. It was easy to 
correlate the Zoroastrian doctrine of resurrection with 
these prophetic doctrines by holding that Yahweh's right- 
eousness and almighty power showed themselves by de- 
livering men from the "eternal sleep" of Sheol through 
restoring them to life on earth in the body. The foreign 
doctrine of resurrection thus came as a welcome aid in 
solving the problem of retribution which had been left 
unsolved by the prophets. 

While Job was struggling with the mystery of his 
terrible sufferings, loss of wealth, loss of children, and 
loss of health, and was unable to find any explanation for 
these either as the punishment of the sins of his ancestors, 
or as punishment for his own sins; and was tempted to 
deny that an all-wise, all-powerful, and all-righteous God 
ruled the world; the question suddenly flashed into his 
mind, Was it not possible that a vindication of his in- 
nocence might come after death? That could not be in 
Sheol, since there conscious existence ceased, but might 
not God bring him back to life again, so that on earth and 
in the flesh he should receive the reward of virtue ? The 
cut-down tree revives. May not man also awaken from 
the sleep of death? 



282 SPIRITISM xni 

"There is hope for a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout 
again, 
And that the tender branch thereof will not cease. 
Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, 
And the stock thereof die in the ground; 
Yet through the scent of water it will bud, > 
And put forth boughs like a plant" (Job 14:7-9). 

At first the poet rejects the thought of resurrection as 
inconceivable. 

"But a man dieth, and is prostrate, 
And a mortal expireth, and where is he? 
As the water vanisheth from the sea, 
And as the river drieth up and is arid, 
So man lieth down, and doth not arise: 
Till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, 
Nor be roused out of their sleep" (14:10-12). 

But the new hope that has risen within him still asserts 
itself. 

"O that thou wouldest hide me in Sheol, 
That thou wouldest conceal me until thy wrath should turn 

away, 
That thou wouldest appoint me a set time and remember me. 
If a man die, shall he live again? 
All the days of my enlistment would I wait, 
Till my discharge should come, 
Till thou shouldest call, and I should answer thee, 
Till thou shouldest long for the work of thy hands" (14:13-15). 

The hope here expressed does not mount to the height 
of assertion, and the theme is not pursued farther at this 
point; but in 19:25-27 Job again returns to it, and this 
time states as a conviction what before had been only a 
vague longing. 

"But I know that my avenger liveth, 
And one who shall survive after I am dust; 
And that another shall arise as my witness, 
And that he shall set up his mark. 
From my flesh shall I see God, 
Whom I shall see for myself, 
And mine eyes shall behold, and no stranger." 4 

* Translated from the text as revised by Duhm on the basis of the Septuagint. 



xin NEW THEORIES OF IMMORTALITY' 283 

This cannot refer, as many commentators have sup- 
posed, to a vision of God in the other world, for Job 
has asserted too often his conviction that there is no 
knowledge in Sheol (Job 7 19; 14:21; 17:15 f.). It must 
be interpreted in the light of the hope that struggles to 
expression in 14:7-15, that there is such a thing as a 
return from Sheol to the life upon earth. "From my 
flesh," accordingly, cannot mean "disembodied," but must 
mean "re-embodied." The vindication of a disembodied 
spirit would be at variance with the whole development 
of Old Testament thought up to this point. 

An apocalypse of the late Persian period that has been 
incorporated with the prophecies of Isaiah, Isa., chaps. 
24-27, extends the hope of an individual resurrection ex- 
pressed by Job to all the righteous of Israel: "Thy dead 
shall arise; the inhabitants of the dust shall awake, and 
shout for joy; for a dew of lights is thy dew, and to life 
shall the earth bring the shades." 5 On the other hand, 
the wicked shall remain in the dreamless sleep of Sheol : 
"They shall be swept together as prisoners into a pit, 
and led down to be confined in a dungeon ; thus after many 
days they will be punished." "The (wicked) dead will 
not live again, their shades will not rise ; to that end thou 
didst punish them, thou didst destroy them, and cause all 
memory of them to perish." 6 Here Sheol appears, not as 
the common fate of all men, as in the pre-exilic period, but 
only as the punishment of the wicked; while the reward 
of the righteous is that they escape from Sheol, and 
participate in the kingdom of the restored Israel. 

A further extension of the doctrine of resurrection is 
seen in Daniel (165-164 B.C.) : "And many that sleep 
in the land of dust shall awake, some to everlasting life, 
and some to shame and everlasting contempt." 7 Here 
both the conspicuously good and the conspicuously bad 

•Isa. 26:19, according to the amended text of Duhm and Cheyne. 
8 Isa. 24:22; 26:14. 
'Dan. 12:2f. 



284 SPIRITISM xm 

are raised again, in order that in the flesh they may re- 
ceive the just recompense of their deeds in their former 
lives. 

The expectation of resurrection is extended by later 
writings to all the dead. Thus in II Esd. 4:41 we read: 
"In the grave the chambers of souls are like the womb; 
for like as a woman that travaileth maketh haste to 
escape the anguish of the travail, even so do these places 
haste to deliver those things that are committed unto 
them from the beginning"; 7:32: "The earth shall re- 
store those that are asleep in her, and so shall the dust 
those that dwell therein in silence, and the chambers shall 
deliver those souls that were committed unto them" ; 
Enoch 51:1: "In those days shall the earth give back 
those that are gathered in her, and Sheol shall restore 
those it has received, and Abaddon shall render up 
what has been intrusted to it" ; Apoc. Bar. 2 1 123 : "May 
Sheol be sealed up henceforth, that it receive no more 
dead; and may the chambers of souls restore those that 
are shut up in them." 

This general resurrection of all men, to receive the 
judgment of the last day, became the doctrine of the 
Pharisees and of the Talmud. In Acts 23 :6ft. we are told 
that "when Paul perceived that the one part were Sad- 
ducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, 
Brethren, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees: touching 
the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in 
question. And when he had so said, there arose a dis- 
sension between the Pharisees and the Sadducees; and 
the assembly was divided. For the Sadducees say that 
there is no resurrection, neither angel nor spirit; but the 
Pharisees confess both." So also in John 11 :24 Martha 
voices the correct Pharisaic teaching when she says of 
her brother, "I know that he shall rise again in the resur- 
rection at the last day." This doctrine of resurrection 
agrees with the Prophets, the Law, and the Sadducees 
in denying that there is any life of the spirit apart from 



xm NEW THEORIES OF IMMORTALITY 285 

the body. It is not belief in immortality in any proper 
sense of the word, but is belief in resumption of the 
present physical life on earth. It is more akin to primi- 
tive theories of re-incarnation and transmigration of 
souls than it is to philosophical or religious conceptions 
of the intrinsic indestructibility of spirits. It exalts the 
righteousness of God, but it is a lower doctrine of spirits 
than primitive animism. 8 

b. Greek Influence in the Doctrine of Incorporeal 
Immortality. — From Alexander's conquest in 333 B.C. 
down to the founding of the Maccabean kingdom in 165 
B.C. the Jews stood under Greek rule and were in close 
contact with Greek civilization. In Palestine, and par- 
ticularly in Egypt, they accepted many Greek philosophic 
ideas, and sought to combine them with the faith of their 
fathers. This was particularly true of conceptions of 
the soul. The magnificent heritage of Greek thought on 
the subject of immortality, which has been discussed in 
a previous chapter, 9 was well known to Jewish thinkers 
in Alexandria, and was more or less familiar to the 
rabbis in Palestine. The Book of Wisdom, which stands 
sixth in our English Apocrypha, is a product of Alexan- 
drian Hellenism, and teaches a purely Platonic doctrine 
of the inherent divinity and immortality of the soul. In 
Wisd. 2 123-3 :6 we meet the finest expression of faith 
in immortality that occurs in all pre-Christian literature : 

"God created man for incorruption, 
And made him an image of his own proper being; 
But by the envy of the Devil death entered into the world, 
And they that are of his portion make trial thereof. 
But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, 
And no torment shall touch them. 
In the eyes of the foolish they seemed to have died; 
And their departure was accounted to be their hurt, 
And their journeying away from us to be their ruin; 
But they are in peace. 

8 See pp. 26, 98ft. 
• See pp. 99-101. 



286 SPIRITISM xm 

For even if in the sight of men they be punished, 

Their hope is full of immortality; 

And having borne a little chastening, they shall receive great 

good; 
Because God made trial of them, and found them worthy of 

himself." 

Here we meet the Platonic ideas, that man is a spark 
from the divine fire, that birth is a fall from a higher 
existence, that the body is the prison of the soul, that 
death is a release from prison, and that the souls 
of the righteous pass to an immediate reward. 10 The 
same theology is taught in IV Maccabees, 11 where the 
patriarchs and saints are not in Sheol, but dwell with 
God, and are joined at death by the righteous, particu- 
larly by martyrs for the faith. A similar doctrine was 
held by Philo of Alexandria and by the Essenes in Pales- 
tine, according to the testimony of Josephus. 12 On this 
theory resurrection was unnecessary, since the body was 
evil, and at death the soul at once entered upon a higher 
spiritual life. 

It is possible that the Platonic doctrine of inherent 
immortality is taught by a few psalms of the late Greek 
period, where it is said that God does not permit his 
righteous ones to see Sheol, or that he delivers them 
from Sheol; 13 but it is probable in all these cases that 
deliverance from Sheol does not mean keeping one from 
going to Sheol after death, but keeping one from dying. 14 
In this case the Platonic theory of immortality is not 
found in any of the writings that have been admitted to 
the Old Testament canon. 

c. Combination of the Persian Doctrine of Resurrec- 
tion with the Greek Doctrine of Incorporeal Immor- 
tality. — Hellenistic Jews who had adopted the Platonic 

10 Cf. 1:15; 4:7-15; 7:3; 8:20; 9:15; 10:13. 

"IV Mac. 5:37; 7:3, 19; 9:8; 13:17;i 14:5f.; 15:3; 16:13; 17:5, 12; 
18:16, 23. 

12 Ant. xviii. 1:5; War, ii. 8:11. 

18 Ps. 16:9-11; 17:15; 49:13-15; 73:23-26. 

14 See p. 246. 



xiii NEW THEORIES OF IMMORTALITY 287 

conception of the soul, but who wished also to retain 
the orthodox Pharisaic doctrine of the resurrection of 
the body, tried to unite the two ideas by the assumption 
that at death the righteous passed at once into a blessed 
existence and the wicked into a state of punishment, but 
that they were raised again to the life of the body on 
earth at the last day to receive their final rewards and 
punishments. This doctrine first appears in the oldest 
portion of the Book of Enoch, chaps. 1-36, 15 which some 
critics date as early as 170 B.C., but which others assign 
to the reign of John Hyrcanus (135-105 B.C.). In chap. 
22 Sheol is described as containing three divisions, two 
for the wicked and one for the righteous. One contains 
the souls of the wicked who have received their punish- 
ment in this life. They shall remain there forever, and 
not be raised at the last day. The second contains the 
wicked who have not been punished in this life. "Here 
their spirits are placed apart in this great pain, till the 
day of judgment, and punishment, and torment of the 
accursed forever." The third contains the souls of the 
righteous and the great saints. These dwell already in 
Paradise, and drink of the water of life, while they await 
their resurrection. 

In the Parables of Enoch (Chaps. 37-71), which prob- 
ably date from a time shortly before the beginning of 
the Christian era, the righteous pass at once after death 
into blessedness in the presence of God, and are 
guarded by the pre-existent "Son of Man." 16 At the time 
of the coming of the "Son of Man" they are to be raised 
to life, in order that they may share in the blessedness 
of the Messianic kingdom. 17 

A similar conception appears in another independent 
section of the Book of Enoch (chaps. 102-4) : "I swear 
to you now, ye righteous . . . that good of every sort, 

" See Charles, The Book of Enoch; Kautzsch, Apocryphen und Pseudepigraphen. 
Charles, Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament. 
"Enoch 38:1; 40:5; 43:4; 49:3; 60:6; 61:12; 70:4. 
"Enoch 51:1. 



288 SPIRITISM xm 

joy and honour, are prepared and recorded for the spirits 
of those who have died in righteousness. . . . Woe to 
you sinners, when ye die in your sins, and your comrades 
say of you, Blessed are the sinners. . . . Know ye not 
that their souls are brought down to Sheol, that they 
fare ill, and that their affliction will be great?" 18 

This combination of Platonism and Pharisaism found 
great favour in the early Christian Church and in later 
Rabbinic Judaism, and has become the orthodox doctrine 
of Christian scholastic theology. Thus the Westminster 
Shorter Catechism teaches: "The souls of believers are, 
at their death, made perfect in holiness, and do immedi- 
ately pass into glory; and their bodies, being still united 
to Christ, do rest in their graves till the resurrection. At 
the resurrection, believers, being raised up in glory, shall 
be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the day of 
judgment, and made perfectly blessed in the full enjoying 
of God to all eternity." 

The difficulty with this combination is that a judgment 
at death makes a last judgment unnecessary. If the dead 
pass at once into felicity or into torture, there is no need 
of a general resurrection in order that the divine justice 
may be vindicated. The two theories seem to be mutually 
exclusive, and all efforts to combine them are artificial. 

Thus it appears that in the time of Christ four theories 
of the future life prevailed among the Jews; first, that of 
the Sadducees, that there was no conscious existence of 
the soul after death and no resurrection; second, that of 
the Pharisees, that there was no conscious existence of 
the soul after death, but that there was a resurrection 
to new life in the body on earth; third, that of the Hellen- 
ists, that there was a conscious existence of the disem- 
bodied soul without resurrection; and fourth, that also 
of the Hellenists, that there was a conscious existence of 
the disembodied soul, followed by a resurrection at the 
last day. These four theories struggled with one another 

18 Enoch 103 :lf.; compare also Apoc. Bar., chap. 30; II Esd., chap. 7. 



xin NEW THEORIES OF IMMORTALITY 289 

for supremacy, no consensus of opinion was reached, and 
many Jews remained sceptical on the whole subject. A 
new revelation was needed to clarify thought. Fresh 
light must be thrown upon the nature of God, the nature 
of man, and their relation to one another, before the prob- 
lem of immortality could be solved. That light came in 
Him, through whose life, and teaching, and rising again 
from the dead, life and immortality have been brought 
to light. ' 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE TEACHING OF JESUS IN REGARD TO IMMORTALITY 

a. The Fatherhood of God. — The fundamental fact 
in the religious experience of Jesus was the fatherhood 
of God. He constantly called God "my Father," and 
spoke of himself as "the Son." 1 He recognized that 
God was the Father of other men also, but he carefully 
distinguished his sonship from theirs. He spoke of "your 
Father" and "my Father," but never of "our Father." 
He taught his disciples: "After this manner pray ye, 
Our Father who art in Heaven," but he did not join 
in the petition. He was conscious of a unique filial rela- 
tion. At his baptism and at his transfiguration he was 
aware of a voice saying, "This is my Son, my Beloved, 
in whom I am well pleased"; and, according to the re- 
markable passage from the Quelle which has been pre- 
served both by Matthew and by Luke, he declared: "All 
things have been delivered unto me of my Father; and 
no one knoweth the Son, save the Father; neither doth 
any know the Father, save the Son, and he to whomso- 
ever the Son willeth to reveal him." 2 Nevertheless, this 
consciousness of his own peculiar sonship did not hinder, 
but rather helped him, to realise that other men also 
were children of God in a very deep and true sense. On 
this foundation of personal experience of sonship to God 
Jesus based his gospel. Father became his constant name 
for God, being used one hundred and eighty times in our 
canonical Gospels. 

This title had been applied to God in the Old Testa- 

*Mark 8:38; 14:36; Matt. 7:21; 10:321; 12:50; 16:17; etc.; Luke 4:3, 9. 

8 Mark 1:11; 9:7; Matt. 11:27 = Luke 10:22. Cf. Matt. 17:2Sf.; Mark 12:6. 

290 



xiv THE TEACHING OF JESUS 291 

ment and in other ancient religions, but Jesus gave it a 
new meaning both extensively and intensively. Exten- 
sively, in the Old Testament God was the Father of 
Israel, 3 of the king, 4 and of the righteous; 5 but he was 
never called the Father of each individual Israelite, much 
less of all men. The Gentiles stood outside of his fatherly 
interest and care. 6 For Jesus, on the contrary, God was 
the Father of every individual human being. When he 
said, "Your Heavenly Father feeds the birds of the 
heaven, and clothes the lilies and the grass of the field," 
and added, "Are ye not of much more value than they? 
shall He not much more feed and clothe you?" he im- 
plied that God's fatherly care extends even to the lower 
orders of life; and therefore, all men must be included 
in its scope. In the parable of the good Samaritan he 
taught that God's fatherhood transcends the limits of 
race; and in the parables of the two sons and of the 
prodigal son he taught that God is the Father of sinners 
as well as of the righteous. 7 

Intensively also Jesus' conception of the fatherhood 
of God went far beyond the teaching of the Old Testa- 
ment. In the Old Testament, as in many other ancient 
religions, Father meant primarily "begetter," or "crea- 
tor." 8 It was also a title of respect expressing the divine 
superiority to men in wisdom, power, and goodness; and 
a title of authority describing God as the ruler of the 
world, just as the patriarchal father was the ruler of his 
family. Rarely, and only in the later Old Testament 
books, does Father express the parental love of God 
toward his children. 9 

All these older meanings of fatherhood Jesus re- 
tained in his conception of God. God is Father because 

8 Deut. 32:6, 18; Isa. 64:8; Mai. 2:10; Ex. 4:22; Hos. 11:1. 

*II Sam. 7:14f.; Ps. 2:7; 89:26f. 

6 Ps. 103:13. 

8 Ex. 17:14, 16; Deut. 25:17-19; I Sam. 15:3; Mai. 1:2. 

7 Matt. 6:25-34; 7:7-11; 10:29-31; 18:14; Luke 15. 

8 Deut. 32:18; Isa. 64:8; Jer. 2:27; Mai. 2:10. 

•Hos. 11:1, 8; Jer. 3:14, 19; 31:3; Mai. 3:17; Ps. 103:13. 



292 SPIRITISM xiv 

he has created men, 10 and because he is infinitely superior 
to them in every respect. To express this divine tran- 
scendence Jesus used the terms "Heavenly Father," or 
"Father in Heaven." God is Father also because He 
is the sovereign ruler of the universe. The Father is at 
the same time King of the Kingdom of God. 11 The 
central element, however, in Jesus' conception of God's 
fatherhood is his infinite and eternal love. This element, 
which exists in the Old Testament only in germ, becomes 
fundamental in the theology of Jesus, 12 so that the 
Apostle John can correctly summarise his Master's teach- 
ing by saying, "God is love," that is, love is not merely 
one among many divine attributes, but it is the essence 
of God, it is the quality which explains and unifies all 
the divine attributes and activities. This love of God 
Jesus exemplified in his own attitude toward men by 
showing a love that included Gentiles as well as Jews, 
women and little children as well as men, ignorant as 
well as wise, lowly as well as exalted, sinful as well as 
good, unchurched and hated as well as pious and religious. 

b. The Sonship of Men. — The counter-truth to the 
universal fatherhood of God is, that all men are God's 
children. This Jesus affirmed quite as often as that God 
is the Father in Heaven. When he spoke of men as 
"becoming sons of God," 13 this did not imply that they 
were not already sons, but only that they could continually 
advance into a larger realisation and exemplification of 
sonship. All men are children of God, but all do not 
yet live like God's children. 

From sonship to God Jesus inferred the infinite value 
of every human soul. The soul is more precious than 
all material things: "What shall it profit a man, if he 
shall gain the whole world, and lose his own life; or 
what shall a man give in exchange for his life." The 

10 Mark 10:6. 

"Mark. 10:27; 14:36; Matt. 6:4, 6, 8, 18, 32; 5:48; 19-17. 

12 See above, note 7. 

" Matt. 5:45; Mark. 3:35; John 1:12-13; 3:3-9. 



xiv THE TEACHING OF JESUS 293 

soul is more valuable than all plant or animal life, more 
valuable than the grass or the lilies, more valuable than 
birds, or sheep, or oxen. In the parables of the lost 
piece of money, the lost sheep, and the prodigal son, 
Jesus taught that God cherishes every human soul, and 
that He cannot bear that one of his children should 
perish. 14 

c. The Immortality of the Soul. — The love of God, 
which makes every human being precious to Him, is the 
basis of Jesus' teaching of immortality. If God re- 
gards his children as supremely precious because He loves 
them, it is inconceivable that he will give them up to 
annihilation in death. No true parent can bear to think 
of the death of his smallest or feeblest child, "even so it 
is not the will of your Heavenly Father that one of these 
little ones should perish." 15 Granted Jesus' conception 
of the father-love of God, his doctrine of immortality 
follows from it with inevitable logic. The certainty of 
the future life rings through all the gospel message. 
"Be not afraid of them that kill the body, but are not 
able to kill the soul." "See that ye despise not one 
of these little ones; for I say unto you, that in heaven 
their angels do always behold the face of my Father 
which is in heaven." Jesus spoke frequently of "inherit- 
ing eternal life." To the penitent thief at his side he 
said: "To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise." He 
said: "In my Father's house are many mansions, I go 
to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare 
a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto 
myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." He 
bade men "lay up treasures in heaven, where neither 
moth nor rust doth consume, and where thieves do not 
break through and steal." 16 

By the light of this doctrine of immortality Jesus 

"Matt. 16:26; 6:25-30; 12:12; Luke IS. 

"Matt. 18:14. 

"Matt. 10: 28=Luke 12: 4; Matt. 18: lo; 19: 16, 29; Luke 23: 43; John 14: 2. 



294 SPIRITISM xiv 

tested the current Jewish theories in regard to the future 
life and found them inadequate. 

d. Jesus' Attitude Toward the Sadducees. — Jesus' 
relation to the Sadducean doctrine of eternal sleep of 
the dead comes to clearest expression in the lengthy argu- 
ment with the Sadducees recorded by all the Synoptic 
Gospels. 17 The Sadducees repeated an ancient story, 
which they regarded as a reductio ad absurdum of the 
Pharisaic belief in resurrection, about a woman who 
obeyed the levirate law of Deut. 25 15 requiring a man 
to take his brother's widow, if he died childless, and beget 
children for his brother. This woman married seven 
brothers in turn, who all died childless. "In the resur- 
rection, therefore," the Sadducees asked triumphantly, 
"whose wife shall she be? for the seven had her to 
wife." They regarded this case as a demonstration that 
a return to physical life on earth, such as the Pharisees 
taught, was impossible; and with the rejection of resur- 
rection they also rejected belief in any sort of immor- 
tality. 

Jesus replied: "Ye do greatly err, not knowing the 
scriptures, nor the power of God. God said unto Moses, 
'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the 
God of Jacob.' He is not the God of the dead, but of 
the living, for all live unto him." That is to say, if God 
has entered during life into such a personal relation of 
love and fellowship with a man that He can say, "I am 
Abraham's God, and Isaac's God, and Jacob's God," 
that relation is from the nature of the case indestructible. 
They cannot die on whom God has set his love; "He is 
not the God of the dead, but of the living"; those whom 
He has once loved must live evermore unto Him. This 
is the same confidence that Paul expressed when he said : 
"I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, 
nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, 
nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created 

"Mark 12:18-27 = Matt. 22:23-33 = Luke 20:27-40. 



xiv THE TEACHING OF JESUS 295 

thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, 
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." 18 Jesus thus re- 
jected totally the doctrine of the Sadducees that the con- 
scious existence of the soul ceases at death, and in so 
doing he rejected also the doctrine of the Prophets and 
of the Law which the Sadducees had perpetuated. 

e. Jesus 1 Attitude Toward the Pharisees. — In op- 
posing the Sadducees Jesus in a measure put himself on 
the side of the Pharisees, but their crass, materialistic 
conception of the future life was as unacceptable to him 
as it was to the Sadducees. He recognized that the 
Sadducees were right in holding that a resumption of 
the present life on earth is impossible. "They that are 
accounted worthy to attain to that world, and the resur- 
rection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in 
marriage; neither can they die any more, for they are 
equal unto the angels, and are sons of God, being sons 
of the resurrection." That is to say, the future life is 
different in kind from the present life; it is no mere re- 
animation of the body that has been laid in the grave, 
but it is entrance upon a new and incomprehensible form 
of existence "like unto the angels." Jesus thus rejected 
the Pharisaic doctrine of the resurrection of the flesh 
just as completely as he rejected the Sadducean doctrine 
of eternal sleep in Sheol. 

/. Jesus' Attitude Toward the Alexandrian School. 
— Jesus rejection of the Pharisaic idea of resurrection 
seems to ally him with the Platonic doctrine of immor- 
tality held by the Hellenistic Jews of Alexandria; and, it 
must be admitted, he is nearer to this school than to 
either the Sadducees or the Pharisees; still his teaching 
is not identical with that of the Book of Wisdom. Wis- 
dom and all the Hellenists maintain that the future life 
is purely incorporeal, that there is no resurrection of any 
sort, but that the body is evil and a clog to the soul from 
which it is delivered by death. This is not the conception 

"Rom. 8:38f. 



296 SPIRITISM xiv 

of Jesus. He retains the old Pharisaic term ''resurrec- 
tion," although he does not use it in the Pharisaic sense. 
He speaks of a "recompense in the resurrection of the 
just." He says, iC L am the resurrection and the life." 19 
This must indicate that he did not hold that the future 
life is to be the ghost-existence of a discarnate spirit, 
as both primitive animism and classical philosophy taught, 
but that the soul is provided at death with a new body 
adapted to the new environment upon which it is enter- 
ing. It is not the body that has been laid in the grave, 
but a superior body, like unto those worn by the angels 
of God. The entrance upon this new existence Jesus 
can appropriately call "resurrection," even though his 
idea is vastly different from the Pharisaic conception 
of a resurrection of the flesh. 

Paul's doctrine of the resurrection seems to be iden- 
tical; and, therefore, is the best commentary on the 
teaching of Jesus: "But some one will say, How are the 
dead raised? and with what manner of body do they 
come? Thou foolish one, that which thou thyself sowest 
is not quickened except it die ; and that which thou sowest, 
thou sowest not the body that shall be, but a bare grain, 
it may chance of wheat, or of some other kind; but God 
giveth it a body even as it pleaseth him, and to each seed 
a body of its own. . . . There are also celestial bodies, 
and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is 
one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. ... 
So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in cor- 
ruption; it is raised in incorruption: it is sown in dis- 
honour; it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness; it 
is raised in power: it is sown a natural body; it is raised 
a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also 
a spiritual body. . . . Now this I say, brethren, that 
flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; 
neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. . . . For 
this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal 

"Mark 12:25f. = Matt. 22:30f. = Luke 20:35f.; Luke 14:14; John 11:25. 



xiv THE TEACHING OF JESUS 297 

must put on immortality. But when this corruptible shall 
have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put 
on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that 
is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, 
where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting? . . . 
Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our 
Lord Jesus Christ." 20 

Jesus thus transcended the materialistic denial of im- 
mortality by affirming that there is no break between the 
present and the future existence of the soul, but that life 
is continuous. He transcended the equally materialistic 
conception of a re-animation of the body laid in the 
grave by teaching that the eternal mode of existence is 
different in kind from the present mode, and is akin to 
that of a superior order of spiritual beings, the angels. 
He transcended the ghost-theory of primitive animism 
by teaching that the soul at death enters, not upon a 
dreamy, shadowy, worthless existence, but upon a richer 
and more abundant life. He transcended the philosophic 
abstraction of pure spirit, with its attendant danger of 
loss of personality through absorption into the Universal 
Spirit, by teaching that the soul acquires at death a 
spiritual body, adapted to the needs of eternal, spiritual 
existence. Thus he gave the world the loftiest and 
noblest doctrine of immortality that has ever been con- 
ceived, and surpassed the best efforts of all the religious 
thinkers who had gone before him. 

The Christian Church in its teaching on immortality 
has not always maintained the high standard set by its 
Master, but has substituted the Jewish compromise be- 
tween Hellenism and Pharisaism that was current in the 
time of Christ, according to which souls entered at once 
after death upon a spiritual immortality, but returned 
to their bodies at the general resurrection of the last day. 
This has become the orthodox doctrine of the great his- 
toric creeds. Thus the Westminster Confession, the last 

20 1 Cor. 15:35-57. 



298 SPIRITISM xiv 

of these creeds, says: "The bodies of men, after death, 
return to dust, and see corruption; but their souls (which 
neither die nor sleep), having an immortal subsistence, 
immediately return to God who gave them. The souls 
of the righteous, being then made perfect in holiness, are 
received into the highest heavens, where they behold the 
face of God in light and glory, waiting for the full re- 
demption of their bodies : and the souls of the wicked are 
cast into hell, where they remain in torments and utter 
darkness, reserved to the judgment of the great day. 
Besides these two places for souls separated from their 
bodies, the Scripture acknowledgeth none. At the last 
day, such as are found alive shall not die, but be changed : 
and all the dead shall be raised up with the selfsame 
bodies, and none other, although with different qualities, 
which shall be united again to their souls for ever." 21 
This is exactly the doctrine of the Book of Enoch and 
of the Talmud, 22 but it is doubtful whether it represents 
in the slightest degree the original teaching of Jesus. 

g. The Resurrection of Jesus. — According to the 
unanimous belief of the primitive Christian Church Jesus 
died upon the cross, was buried, and on the third day 
rose from the dead and showed himself alive to a large 
number of his disciples. He thus not merely taught im- 
mortality, but also demonstrated it in his own case by 
proving that he had survived the catastrophe of death. 
In regard to this stupendous claim of the first followers 
of Jesus the historical facts are as follows: 

i. Mark, our oldest Gospel, written from thirty to 
thirty-five years after the crucifixion, declares that Jesus 
predicted not only his death, but also his resurrection; 
and this testimony is repeated by all the other Gospels. 23 

2. Christian literature beginning with the sermons 
of Peter and Paul in the Book of Acts, continuing with 

21 Westminster Confession, Chapter XXXII. 

22 See p. 284. 

28 Mark. 8:31; 9:9f., 31; 10:34. 



xiv THE TEACHING OF JESUS 299 

the early letters of Paul (52-60 A.D.), the Gospels (60- 
100 A.D.), and other later writings, is unanimous that 
Jesus was crucified, and that he certainly died on the 
cross. Crucifixion is not the sort of punishment that a 
man can survive and lead an active life after it has oc- 
curred. The Roman executioners may be trusted to have 
seen to it that Jesus was surely dead before they allowed 
his body to be removed from the cross, and the Fourth 
Gospel adds: "One of the soldiers with a spear pierced 
his side, and straightway there came out blood and water" 
(i. e. y the heart was pierced). "And he that hath seen 
hath born witness, and his witness is true : and he knoweth 
that he saith true, that ye also may believe" (i. e. y this 
rests upon the testimony of an eye-witness). 24 There 
can be no doubt, therefore, as to the reality of Jesus' 
death. The "swoon theory" as an explanation of the 
primitive Christian belief in Jesus' resurrection is now 
thoroughly discredited among scientific historians. 

3. The belief that Jesus had risen from the dead 
appeared among the first disciples on the third day 
after his crucifixion, and remained unshaken throughout 
the whole period covered by the New Testament litera- 
ture. The early Aramaic document on which Luke bases 
his narrative in the first thirteen chapters of Acts records 
that, beginning with the Day of Pentecost, fifty days 
after the crucifixion, Peter began to preach, "Jesus of 
Nazareth, the Messiah, whom ye crucified, hath God 
raised from the dead." This testimony is confirmed by 
Peter himself in his first letter (c. 64 A.D.). 25 From 
personal experience as the companion of Paul, Luke 
testifies that Paul preached the resurrection of Jesus from 
the time of his conversion, soon after the crucifixion, 
through all his missionary journeys; 26 and his statements 
are confirmed by Paul's earliest letters, I Thessalonians, 

24 Acts 2:36; 4:10; I Thes. 4:14; 5:10; I Cor. 15:3; Mark 15:37; John 19:34f. 
26 Acts 1:22; 2:24; 2:31-34; 3:15; 4:2, 10, 33; 5:30; 10:40; I Pet. 1:3, 21; 3:21. 
26 Acts 13:30-37; 17:3, 18, 31-32; 26:8, 23. 



300 SPIRITISM xiv 

II Thessalonians, I Corinthians, II Corinthians, Galatians, 
Romans, Colossians, Ephesians, and Philippians, which 
are the oldest New Testament writings, and range in date 
between 52 and 60 A.D. 27 There is not another subject 
on which the New Testament writings are so unanimous 
as they are on the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the 
dead. There were disputes in the Church as to whether 
his followers also rose, and disputes on many matters 
of doctrine and practice; but no early Christian ever 
questioned that Jesus himself had risen, nor did any 
heresy denying the resurrection appear in the early cen- 
turies of Christianity. This fact of universal faith in 
Jesus' resurrection in the Christian Church from the very 
beginning is admitted by all schools of criticism, and must 
be satisfactorily accounted for by any historical theory 
of the resurrection. 

4. The New Testament writings state that the primi- 
tive Christian assurance of the fact of Jesus' resurrection 
rested upon two foundations: first, the empty tomb and 
the inability of the Jewish authorities to produce the 
body of Jesus; and second, upon repeated appearances of 
Jesus to his disciples during the forty days that followed 
his crucifixion. Matthew (70-80 A.D.) alone narrates 
the guarding of the tomb in which the body of Jesus was 
laid by the Jewish and Roman authorities. Mark, our 
oldest Gospel, followed by all the other Gospels, narrates 
that women who came to the tomb early in the morning 
of the third day found it empty, and reported this to 
the Apostles. Luke and John record that Peter and 
John then went to the tomb, and found it empty, as the 
women had reported. Matthew alone relates that the 
priests bribed the soldiers to say that the body of Jesus 
had been stolen while they slept. 28 The empty tomb 
thus rests primarily upon the testimony of Mark, who 

aT I Thes. 1:10; 4:14; I Cor. 6:14; 15:3-23; II Cor. 4:14; 5:15; 13:4; Gal. 
1:1; Rom. 1:4; 4:24f.; 5:10; 6:4-10; 7:4; 8:11, 34; 10:9; 14:9; Col. 2:12; 3:1; 
Eph. 1:19-23; 2:5, 6; Phil. 2:8-11; 3:10. 

28 Matt. 27:62-66; Mark 16:1-8; Luke 24:12, 24; John 20:3-10; Matt. 28:11-15. 



xiv THE TEACHING OF JESUS 301 

was one of the eye-witnesses of the closing events in the 
earthly life of Jesus, and in whose mother's house the 
last supper was eaten and the Spirit descended on the 
Day of Pentecost. 29 Papias, who wrote about 140 A.D., 
states that "Mark, who was Peter's interpreter, wrote 
down accurately, though not in order, all that he recol- 
lected of what Christ had said or done." Mark's testi- 
mony to the empty tomb is thus ultimately the testimony 
of Peter also. 

Luke in his account of the empty tomb follows Mark 
in the main, but has access to another source, which, in 
addition to Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of 
James, mentions Joanna among the women who found 
the sepulchre empty. This Joanna is named by Luke 
only in 8 13 : "Joanna, the wife of Chuzas, Herod's stew- 
ard, and Susanna, and many others, who ministered unto 
them of their substance." The same special source con- 
nected with Herod's court appears also in Luke 23 q-12. 
It is a reasonable conjecture that this special source used 
by Luke was the account of Joanna herself, or of one 
of the other women who with her found the tomb empty. 

Through some accident of textual transmission the 
Gospel of Mark most unfortunately breaks off abruptly 
at 16:8, and what follows in the current text is an addi- 
tion, perhaps by the Presbyter Aristion, which is not found 
in the earliest New Testament manuscripts. Luke fol- 
lows Mark closely in 24:1-1 1, and therefore it is probable 
that he followed him also in the account of Peter's dis- 
covery of the empty tomb in 24:12. This is just the sort 
of material that Mark might be expected to have received 
from the oral instruction of Peter. The empty tomb, 
accordingly, rests not only upon the testimony of Mark, 
but also upon the testimony of two other early and inde- 
pendent sources, the tradition of the women who visited 
the sepulchre, and of Peter. The only ways in which 
the evidence of the empty tomb can be eliminated are by 

29 Mark 14:15, Slf.; Luke 24:33; Acts l:13f., 2:1-4; 12:12. 



302 



SPIRITISM xiv 



the supposition that the disciples stole the body of Jesus, 
which is precluded by their moral character and their 
willingness to die for their testimony; or by the theory 
that the empty tomb is a later embellishment of the tradi- 
tion, which is difficult in view of the three ancient and 
independent lines of evidence in support of it. 

5. The earliest witness to the appearances of Jesus 
after his resurrection is Paul in I Cor. 15:3-8: "For I 
delivered unto you first of all that which also I received : 
that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 
and that he was buried; and that he hath been raised on 
the third day according to the scriptures; and that he ap- 
peared unto Cephas; then to the twelve; then he appeared 
to above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the 
greater part remain until now, but some are fallen asleep; 
then he appeared unto James; then to all the apostles; 
and last of all, as to the child untimely born, he appeared 
to me also." Here Paul, writing only twenty-five or 
twenty-six years after the crucifixion (no farther away 
from the events that he records than we are from the 
incidents of the Spanish-American war) , declares that he 
had received the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus 
as part of the primitive apostolic preaching; and had pro- 
claimed this on his first visit to Corinth several years 
earlier : "I delivered unto you first of all that which also 
I received." Furthermore, he asserts that Peter, James, 
and the other apostles, who were well known to him per- 
sonally, vouched for appearances of the risen Jesus to 
themselves. Still more, he claims that there were above 
five hundred brethren, most of whom were still alive, who 
had seen Jesus after his resurrection. Finally, Paul says 
that, some time after the appearances to the others, Jesus 
appeared to him also. This testimony of Paul, a contem- 
porary of Jesus, and a personal friend of the first apostles, 
written within such a short period after the events, is 
historical evidence of the first order. 

The first appearance of Jesus that Paul records, that 



xiv THE TEACHING OF JESUS 303 

to Peter (I Cor. 15:5 a), is attested by an independent 
tradition in Luke 24:34, also by Acts 1:22, 3:15 and 
I Pet. 1 13, 21. The second appearance recorded by Paul 
(I Cor. 15 :5 b) , that to the whole body of disciples, is 
recorded also by Luke 24:36-42, and independently by 
John 20:19-25. The third appearance, according to Paul, 
that to above five hundred brethren at once (I Cor. 
15:6), is probably identical with the appearance on a 
mountain in Galilee narrated by Matt. 28:16-20; Acts 
1 :2&>3 and also by the Gospel of Peter. The appearance 
to James (I Cor. 15:7 a) is mentioned also by a later 
tradition in the Gospel according to the Hebrews; and 
the appearance to all the apostles (I Cor. 15:7 b) is re- 
lated also by Luke 24:44-49 and Acts 1:4, as well as 
by the Gospel according to the Hebrews. The belated 
appearance to Paul himself (I Cor. 15:8) is recorded 
also in Acts 9:1-9; 22:1-11; 26:1-18, and is frequently 
alluded to in Paul's letters, e. g. y I Cor. 9:1; Gal. 1:11-17. 
The appearance to Mary Magdalene (and other 
women) is narrated by Matt. 28:9-10; John 20:11-18; 
and by the appendix to Mark (Mark 16:9-11). In all 
probability Matthew's account is based upon the missing 
conclusion to Mark's Gospel, since he follows Mark in 
the preceding narrative of the empty tomb. The absence 
of this appearance from Paul's list signifies nothing, since 
Paul is giving primarily a list of appearances to the 
apostles, among whom he claims to be included on ac- 
count of Jesus' appearance to him also. The appearance 
to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus is related by 
Luke only, 24:13-35 (Appendix to Mark, 16 :i 2-13), but 
the Greek name Cleopas borne by one of the disciples 
suggests that the incident is derived from the special 
source connected with Herod's court from which Luke 
derived 8:3; 23:7-12; 24:10, namely the report of some 
of the women who came early to the tomb. The appear- 
ances to the apostles recorded in John 20:26-31 and 
21 a-24 are not attested by any earlier sources, and there- 



3 o 4 SPIRITISM xiv 

fore stand on a lower plane of credibility; still, in spite 
of its late date (c. ioo A.D.) , the Gospel of John unques- 
tionably contains many genuine incidents of the life of 
Jesus that are not recorded by the Synoptic Gospels, and 
in some cases John seems to have preserved an even more 
accurate tradition than the Synoptists. The testimony of 
John, therefore, is not lightly to be dismissed as worth- 
less, even when it is unsupported by earlier evidence. 

The only way in which one can set aside this large 
body of early testimony to appearances of Jesus in proof 
of his resurrection is by the hypothesis that all these 
appearances were visions. This theory does not explain 
the ancient testimony to the empty tomb, and is com- 
pelled to call in the "fraud theory" to its support. It is 
contrary to the evidence of our sources, which assert that 
Jesus ate and drank with his disciples, bade them touch 
him, and gave them all possible proof that he was not an 
apparition. 30 The appearances do not occur in such a 
way as would be natural, if they were visionary. If only 
visions had occurred, we should expect that they would 
have come a considerable time after Jesus' death, when 
the disciples had recovered from their first disappoint- 
ment — "The chief priests and our rulers delivered him 
up to be condemned to death, and crucified him; but we 
hoped that it was he who should redeem Israel" — and 
when, after meditation on Jesus' teaching they had come 
to the conclusion that he still lived in Heaven with his 
Father. Someone might then have seen a vision of Jesus 
in glory such as Stephen saw (Acts 7 :55f.) ; and others, 
hearing of it, might have had similar visions. The num- 
ber of visions would slowly increase, and no limit would 
be set to the period during which they occurred. It 
would even be regarded as a normal Christian experience 
to have a vision of the glorified Christ. Instead of this, 
our earliest sources are unanimous that the appearances 
began on the third day after Jesus' crucifixion, that they 

»°Luke 24:30, 37-43; John 20:27; 21:13; Acts 1:3; 10:41; 1 John 1:1. 



xiv THE TEACHING OF JESUS 305 

came to so many persons on that day that by evening 
the disciples were convinced that Jesus had risen from 
the dead, that they lasted over a period of only forty 
days, then ceased abruptly, and were not expected to 
recur again, so that those who had seen them constituted 
a unique class of witnesses to the resurrection. This is 
not in accord with the psychology of visions. The later ap- 
pearance to Paul was so exceptional and unexpected that 
Paul spoke of himself as "a child untimely born." If the 
experiences of the first disciples were only visions, there 
is no reason why Paul might not have had a similar ex- 
perience, or why any other Christian in all time to come 
might not have it. Even Paul's experience differed from 
that of the first apostles in that he had no demonstration 
of the bodily existence of the risen Jesus. That exist- 
ence apparently terminated at the end of the forty days 
during which Jesus "showed himself alive after his pas- 
sion by many proofs" (Acts 1:3), and he then entered 
upon the spiritual existence of the other world that he 
had described in his teaching about immortality. 

The "vision theory," accordingly, fails to do justice 
to the evidence of our earliest Christian historical 
records; and therefore, we are forced to the conclusion 
that the only satisfactory explanation of the resurrection 
faith in the primitive Christian Church is the resurrection 
fact. The first Christians believed that Jesus had risen 
from the dead, not because some of them had visions of 
him — visions of the dead have been common enough in 
all ages — but because they knew the empty tomb and 
the bodily appearances of Jesus over a period of forty 
days to be historical events. Comparisons with Oriental 
and Classical myths of dying and reviving nature-gods 
are out of place here, for belief in Jesus' resurrection 
was not a gradual growth during the centuries after 
Christianity had gone out into Graeco-Roman world, but 
it appeared full blown on the third day after the cruci- 
fixion. The antiquity of the Christian records leaves no 



306 SPIRITISM xiv 

room for a process of myth-making, and mythical 
analogies are useful only when incidents are themselves 
proved to be mythical. 

This stupendous event of Jesus' resurrection was the 
appropriate culmination of his life and of his teaching. 
He claimed to be the "Son of God," and as such to be 
the "Messiah." "He was declared to be the Son of God 
with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the 
resurrection from the dead" (Rom. 1:4). He was re- 
jected by the Jewish authorities as an imposter; but "this 
Jesus did God raise up . . . and made him both Lord 
and Christ" (Acts 2:22-36). He taught that the way 
of self-renunciation was the only way to self-realisation 
— "He that findeth his life shall lose it, but he that loseth 
his life shall find it" — and, in obedience to this law, he 
went to the cross. If the cross had been the end, Jesus' 
life would have closed in apparent failure, and men 
would never have known whether he triumphed, and 
whether his rule of life were true; but through the resur- 
rection it was proved that, because "he humbled himself, 
becoming obedient even v unto death, yea the death of the 
cross, therefore also God highly exalted him, and gave 
him the name which is above every name, that in the 
name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven 
and things on earth and things under the earth, and that 
every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, 
to the glory of God the Father" (Phil. 2:8-11). Jesus 
taught the immortality of every human soul, and he gave 
the supreme evidence of immortality by showing himself 
alive after his passion. Therefore, the faith of the early 
Christian Church in immortality rested not so much upon 
Jesus' teaching as upon the fact of his resurrection. "God 
hath begotten us unto a living hope by the resurrection of 
Jesus Christ from the dead." "He hath abolished death, 
and brought life and immortality to light through the 
gospel." "If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, 
even so them also that are fallen asleep in Jesus will 



xiv THE TEACHING OF JESUS 307 

God bring with him." "God both raised the Lord, and 
will raise up us through his power." "If Christ be 
preached that he hath been raised from the dead, how 
say some among you that there is no resurrection of the 
dead." "Now hath Christ been raised from the dead, 
the firstfruits of them that are asleep." "He that raised 
up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also with Jesus." "If 
the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell 
in you, he that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall 
give life also to your mortal bodies through his spirit 
that dwelleth in you." 31 

"I Pet. 1:3; II Tim. 1:10; I Thes. 4:14; I Cor. 6:14; 15:12, 20; II Cor. 
4:14; Rom. 8.11. 



INDEX 



Aalu, 109; see Earu 

Abaddon, 270 

Abeghian, M., 68n 

Abel, 9911 

Abode of the dead, 35-39, 92-113, 
165-175, 205-207, 215-223, 
238 f; see Spirits, dwelling- 
place 

Abraham's tomb, 251, 260 

Absalom, 235 

Abydos, 152 f., 168 f., 171 

Achaeans, 63 

Achan, 235 

Achilles, 6, 8, 74, 78, 81, 93, 117, 
131 f., 136 

Adam, James, no 

Adapa, 219, 222 

Adjuration of demons, 164 f., 230 

Adoption of sons, 72, 73, 225, 255 

^Edui, 130 

^Egean civilisation, 63 

^Llius Spartianus, 7 

y£neas, 76, 83, 97, 103, 106, 136 

y£neas Sylvius, 98 

^Eneid, 81 n., 83, 84 n., 97, 103, 
106, 136, 143 

iEschylus, 87, 93, 101 

Afringan, 144 

Agni, 68, 108 

Agriculture, 67 

Agrippina, 88 

Ahhazu, 213 

Ahhotep, 180 

Ahimelech, 266 

Ahmose, 180, 197 

Ahriman, 77, 112, 280 

Ahura Mazda, 77, 112, 280 

Alexander, 237, 285 

Alexandrian school, 285-289 

Algonkins, 129 

Allen, Grant, 14 

Allopathic remedies, 229 

All Saints' Day, 140, 147 

All Souls' Day, 146 f. 

Altar, 45, 51 f., 103, 225 

Althaea, 87 



Amenhotep I, 180, 194; II, 191; 
III, 155, 167, 191; IV, 175; 
son of Hapi, 176 

Amenti, 109, 170 

Amon, 161 

Amos, 268 f. 

Amulets, 192, 251 

Ananikian, M. H., ix 

Ancestors, 69, 71, 114; ones that 
are worshipped, 41, 114; of 
reigning dynasty, 41 ; ennobled 
after death, 42 ; worship of, 
see cult of dead 

Ancus, 103 

Andromache, 118 

Angels, 280, 293; guardian, 155, 

293 

Angro-mainyu, 280 

Anima, 70 

Animals, possessed by spirits, see 
Spirits possess animals; buried 
with owners, 47, 49, 131 f., 
209 ; perceive spirits, 204 

Animism, 15, 68 

Animus, 70 

'Ankh, 155 

Anniversary of burial, 145 

Annyn, 106 

Anses, 71 

Antelopes for the dead, 157 

Anthesteria, 145 f. 

Anu, 213, 220 

Anunnaki, 219 f., 220, 222 

Apocalypse of Baruch, 284 

Apollo, 83 

Apparitions, see Spirits appear 

Appius, 79 

Arabs, 200-202, 203, 204, 205, 206, 
207, 208, 209 

Aralu, 170, 215-223, 240 

Aramaeans, 200, 203 

Arawn, 92, 106 

Argus, 87 

Aristion, 301 

Aristophanes, 141 

Armenians, 61, 145 



309 



3io 



INDEX 



Armour, 47, 133, 224 

Arthur, King, 96, no f. 

Aryans, 60; civilisation of, 66 

Asa, 254 

Ashakku, 213 

Ashes in mourning, 11, 117, 250 

Ashurbanipal, 206, 211, 226 

Asklepeios, 97, 176 

Assistants of Heaven, 43 

Astaka, 146 

Asushunamir, 222 

Atharva Veda, 68 n., 76, 124, 144 

Athenaeus, 141 

Athenodorus, 88 

Attila, 65, 136 

Augury, see Spirits control objects, 

plants, animals 
Augustine, 71, 90 n. 
Avallon, no 
Avernus, 83 
Avesta, 60, 68 n., 69, 72, 73, 77, 

108, 112, 121, 124, 126, 137, 148 

f., 280 
Azazel, 262 



Ba, 95, 154 f., 165 f., 171 

Ba'al, 29, 273, 258 f. 

Babylonians, 200-202, 203, 204, 205, 
206, 207, 208, 209, 211-231; in- 
fluence on Hebrews, 240-247 

Baedeker, 181, 188 n., 189 n., 195 n. 

Balaam, 204 

Ban, 139 

Barrett, L. C, ix 

Barrows, 104, 131 

Barth, A., 68 n., 108 n. 

Basar, 200, 232 

Bats, 25, 96 

Beans for the dead, 138, 146 

Bear, 24 

Beer for the dead, 52, 139, 157-159, 
166, 189, 198 f. 

Beggars fed at funerals, 80 

Bekhten, 161, 164 f. 

Bel, 219, f. 

Belial, 243 

Belit-seri, 221 

Ben, '186 

Benefactors deified, 42 

Benihassan, 153, 188 

Benzinger, 10 

Beowulf, 128 

Beth-el, 235, 252 

Bhuts, 76, 85 

Biban el-Muluk, 189, 194 f. 



Bier, 43, 118, 119, 121, 122, 131, 
132, 251 

Birds possessed by spirits, 25, 73, 
74, 76, 95, 162, 173, 203, 217, 
227, 242 ; omens from, 95 ; sac- 
rifice of, 199 

Black animals sacrificed to the 
dead, 74, 137, 151 

Blood, seat of soul, 201, 233 f., 261; 
sacrificed to the dead, n, 13, 
72 f., 140, 151, 209, 261 f. ; see 
Sacrifice 

Boar, 25 

Boat over Styx, see Ferryman 

Body, relation to Spirit, see Spirits, 
relation to body; prison of 
soul, 99, 286, 295 

Boghazkeui, 61, 62 

Bohemians, 62 

Bones, occupied by spirits, 3, 103 ; 
painted red, 3 ; see Spirits, re- 
lation to body 

Book of Him Who is in the Nether 
World, 153, 190 f. 

Book of the Dead, 154, 162, 164, 
174, 183, 191-193 

Bbr, 241 

Bothros, 141 ; see Trench 

Brahmanas, 60 

Brahmans, 80, 98 

Bread, for dead, 120, 140, 157-159, 
166, 198 f. ; of life, 219 

Breast, beating on, 117 

Breaking of objects for dead, 209, 
251 

Breasted, J. H., ix, 153 f., 158 n., 
159 n., 161 n., 166 n., 167 n., 
168 n., 176 n., 179 n., 181 n., 
182 n., 188 n., 195 n., 196 n., 
197 n., 198 n. 

Breath, 6, 74, 154, 200 f., 202, 205, 
232 f., 270; of dying received 
by relative, 117 

Bretons, 64 

Bridal pitcher on grave, 134 

Briseis, 117 

British, 65 

Brittany, 104 

Bronze, 66 

Brynhild, 134 

Brythonic Celts, 64 

Buchler, 248 

Budde, 235 

Buddhism, 98, 100 

Budge, 154 

Bulgarians, 63 



INDEX 



3" 



Burial, 2, 12, 36, 46, 77, 88, 124-126, 
127, 202, 209, 224, 250; nec- 
essity of, see Unburied; im- 
portance of correct manner, 74, 
224; place of, 46, 129-131; in 
houses, 44, 50, 102, 129, 253 ; 
by roads, 130; in family grave, 
37, 102, 239, 245 ; refused to 
criminals, 94, 239; granted to 
criminals, 239; refused to 
enemies, 93, 206 f., 239; re- 
fused to suicides, 94; granted 
to suicides, 239; of souls, 37; 
see Graves, Tombs 

Burkhardt, 209 n. 

Burney, 232 n. 

Busiris, 169 

Byblos, 171 

Bywater, 100 n. 

Caesar, 65, 101, 127, 132, 139 
Cakes for dead, 90, 97, 138, 140- 

142, 147 f., 199 
Canaanites, 200 f., 240 
Canonical Books, Chinese, 16, 17 n., 

37 
Canopic jars, 178 
Carter, J. B., 69 n. 
Catamaran, 173 
Cattle for the dead, 132, 137, 158, 

199 
Caves as tombs, 44, 261 
Cecrops, 96 
Celts, 64, 75, 81, 84, 90, 92, 

95 f., 101-104, IQ 6, no, 115, 

126, 127, 129, 130-133, 139, 

141, 147 
Cemeteries, 125, 127, 133, 183, 188, 

196 
Centum group of languages, 61 
Ceremonial, importance of, 28, 56, 

79, 172 
Chadwick, H. M., 69 n. 
Champollion, 154 
Chariots, 133 
Charlemagne, 128 
Charles, R. H., 232 n., 234 n., 235, 

287 n. 
Charon, 111; see Ferryman 
Ch'eng-I, 55 
Cheops, 169, 185 f. 
Chi, 23 

Ch'i, 19, 20, 38, 39 
Chiao, 23, 52 
Children given by ancestors, 91 ; 

necessary for cult, 225, 254; 



sacrificed to dead, 133 ; killed 

to punish ancestors, 255, see 

Son 
Chou-li, 17 
Ch'un-ch'iu, 17 
Chung-yung , 17 
Cicero, 73, 75, 125, 151 
Clairvoyance, 4, 30, 236; see 

Medium 
Classics, Chinese, 16, 17 n., 37, 59 
Clay, A. T., 225 n. 
Clennell, W. J., 17 n. 
Cleomenes, 96 
Cleopas, 303 
Clothes for the dead, 12, 39, 44, 47, 

72, 81, 119, 159 f., 179, 189 f., 

224, 250 
Cock, 25 
Coffin, 121, 179, 182, 224, 251; 

Texts in, 153, 162, 174, 189, 

192, 196 
Colebrooke, 121, 126, 144 
Comparative religion, 1 
Compitalia, 78 
Confucius, 16, 19, 40, 42, 43, 48, 

5I..56, 57, 58 

Contagion, 214 

Copper, 66 

Cords, tied and loosed in magic, 
228 

Cornelii, 125 

Cornish, 64 

Corporeal existence of Dead among 
Celts, 90, 92 

Corpse, mutilation of, 8, 35, 238; 
preparation for burial, 43, 116, 
118 f., 178-183, 250; unclean- 
ness of, 12, 116, 119, 121, 214, 
238, 252; see Mummy, Ex- 
posure, Burial, Cremation 

Cossacks, 62 

Cremation, 12, 78, 126-129, 2 °6 

Crocodile, spirit, 162 

Cromlechs, 131 

Crooke, W., 68 n., 82 

Crystal-gazing, 6 

Cult of the dead, in primitive re- 
ligion, 9-13; in China, 39-59; 
among Indo-Europeans, 114- 
151; in Egypt, I75;i99; among 
Semites, 208-210; in Babylonia 
and Assyria, 223-231; in 
Israel, 248-256; early opposi- 
tion in Israel, 257-263 ; for- 
bidden by Prophets and Law, 
268-274 



312 



INDEX 



Cuneiform, 211 

Curses on violators of tombs, 165, 

167 f. 
Curtiss, 209 n. 
Czechs, 62 

Daeva, 86 

Dahshur, 185 

Dakhmas, 86, 122, 126 

Dalmatians, 62 

Dancing, 53 

Danes, 65 

Daniel, 31 n., 283 f. 

Dante, 276 

David, 266 

Davis, C. H. S., 154; T. M., 191 

Dawn, 67 

Days of sacrifice to the dead, 55, 
58, 142-147 

Dead, see Spirits of the Dead 

Death, 1, 4, 12 ; inevitableness of, 
218 f., 244; eternal sleep, 166, 
202, 278, 281, 283 ; uncleanness 
of, see Corpse; name of Un- 
derworld, 215, 240; King of 
Sheol, 243 ; angels of, 244 

Deborah, 252, 260 

Decius, 139 

Dedu, 169 

De Groot, J. J. M., 17 n., 18 n., 
20 n., 24 n., 27 n., 32 n., 35 n., 
. 37 ?•> 39 n., 44 n., 49 n. 

Deification of dead, See Spirits 
deified 

Delitzsch, 219 

Demeter, 100 

Democratization of hereafter, 129, 
174, 182 f. 

De Morgan, 152 

Der el-Bahri, 179, 189, 194, 195 

Deuteronomy, 268, 276 

Devas, 114 

Devil, 280, 285 

Devotio, 139 

Dew at, 104, 170, 173 f., 191, 193 

Dies parentales, 145 

Diodorus Siculus, 92, 102, 139 

Diogenes Laertius, 141 

Dionysiac cults, 99 

Dirges, see Laments 

Disease, unclean, 236; cured by 
magic, 226-231; see Spirits 
obsess men 

Disposal of the dead, see Exposure, 
Burial, Cremation. 



Divided personality, 82 

Dlugosz, 107 

Doctrine of the Mean, 17, 20, 55 n. 

Dogs, possessed, 98 ; connected with 
the dead, 108, 123 f. ; as sacri- 
fices, 132, 190 

Dolmens, 2, 131 

Domestic animals, 66 

Door opened at death, 116 

Dore, H., 17 n., 18 n., 22 n., 24 n., 
26 n., 32 n., 35 n., 44 n., 46 n., 
49 n. 

Double, 2, 5, 155 

Doughty, 206, 209 n. 

Draught-board in grave, 189 

Dreams, 3, 17, 31, 76, 80 f. 

Drink for the dead, 3, 8, 28, 44, 53, 

120, 131-135, I37-H7, 157-159, 
160, 189-191, 204, 224, 251 

Drugs, 229 

Druids, 91, 101 

D.u, 154 

Ducks, 26 

Duhm, 282 f. 

Dungi, 223 f., 225 

Dusii, 71, 90 

Dust in mourning, 11, 117, 208 f., 
250 

Dutch, 65 

Dwelling-place of dead, see Abode 

Dying, treatment of, 43, 116 

Ea, 226-228, 213, 231 

Eabani, see Enkidu 

Eannatum, 206 

Earth, name of Underworld, 215, 
241 

Earu, 109, 170 

East, region of life, 170, 173, 183, 
216 

Echo, 6, 204 f. 

Ecstasy, 29, 83 

Edda, 128 

Edkins, J., 17 n. 

Eetion, 76 

Eggs for dead, 140 

Egypt, pre-dynastic, 152, 178, 183, 
189; old empire, 152, 160, 168, 
178, 181, 184, 188-190, 198; 
middle empire, 153, 156, 162, 
168, 180, 182, 187 f., 190, 194, 
new empire, 153, 160, 162, 183, 
188 f., 190-193; period of de- 
cline, 154, 57; spiritism in, 152- 
199 



INDEX 



31.1 



Eisenmenger, 242 

Ekimmu, see Etimmu 

Eleusinian mysteries, 100 

"Elevation of fathers," 144 

Elijah, 244, 247, 280 

Elisha, 247, 280 

Elon, 252 

Elpenor, 73 

Elysium, 109 f. 

Embalming, see Mummy 

Embryonic position of corpse, 2, 

119, 178, 183, 201, 250 
Empedocles, 99, 101 
Emperor-worship, see Kings, cult 

of 
Endowments for the dead, 167-169, 

.197 f- 
Enki, see Ea 
Enkidu, 151, 204, 205, 206, 208, 210, 

215, 220, 221, 231 
Enlil, 224 
Enoch, 244; chaps. 1-36, 284, 287; 

chaps. 37-71, 287; chaps. 102- 

104, 287 
Erebus, 83, 86, 91 
Erechtheus, 96 
Ereshkigal, 218 f., 221 
Erinyes, 87, 95 
Erman, 153, 158 n., 164 n., 165 n., 

192, 196 n. 
Esdras II, 284 
Essenes, 286 
Etana, 221 

Etimmu, 201, 202, 205 
Euhemerus, 14 

Eulogy of the dead, 122, 135, 136 
Euripides, 93, 101, 151 
Evil spirits, 28, 58, 59, 76, 77, 86, 

164 f., 208, 212-215, 218, 230, 

243 
Ewald, 9 

Exorcism, 58, 76, 164 f., 203 f., 212, 

226-231 
Exposure of dead, 93, 122-124, 239 
Eyes of corpse closed, 44, 118 
Ezagulis, 147 
Ezekiel, 268, 274; his theory of 

retribution, 276, 279 

Fairbanks, A., 69 n. 
False door, 45, 187, 194 
Familiar spirit, 210, 236, 256, 259 
Family, cult of dead, 115; buried 

together, 37, 102, 239, 245 
Farnell, L. R., 68 n., 69 n. 



Far Cardigan, 146 

Fasting, 11, 33, 50, 209, 250 

Fear of the dead, see Spirits obsess 
men 

Feasts of the dead, 13, 54, 79, 135 f., 
142-149, 254 

Feet of corpse toward door, 119, 
122 

Fen, 45 

Feng-shui, 46 

Feralia, 145 f. 

Ferryman of dead, in, 158, 170, 
173, 217, 242; see Charon 

Festus, 78 

Fetish, see Spirits occupy objects 

Field of Rushes, 170 

Filial piety, 40, 55, 57, 79, 197 f. 

Fire for spirits, 147, 198; see 
Lights, Lamps; god of, 68 

Firstborn, 254; see Son 

Fish for the dead, 53, 165 

Flam en Dialis, 139 

Flemings, 65 

Flesh, 200, 232; cut for dead, 10, 
117, 208, 249, 274 

Flood, 219 

Flowers, for dead, 73, 79, 135, 140 

Follower, 71 

Food, for the dead, 3, 8, 12, 28, 44, 
4£ 49, 53, 72, 97, 120, 131-135, 
Y37-147, 157-159, 160, 189-191 
201, 204, 206, 224, 230 f., 251, 
2J4. > 

Fore-Doding of the future, 6, 31, 
82, 236 

Forefathers, see Ancestors 

Fortieth day after burial, 143, 145 

Fowler, W. W., 69 n. 

Foxes, 25 

Fragments of food left for friend- 
less dead, 141 

Fravashis, 69, 72, 73, 91, 137, 148 

Frazer, 10 f., 172 

Frisians, 65 

Fruit for dead, 35, 78, 137, 140, 199 

Furniture for the dead, 189-191, 

193 
Future life, ,resembles the present, 
72, 92, 157-159, 221 ; general 
estimate of, 8, 91 f., 207 f., 
264; see Immortality, Hades, 
Paradise 

Gaels, 64 
Gaius, 88 



314 



INDEX 



Galba, 89 

Games at funerals, 97, 136, 143 

Garments, removed in mourning, 9, 
248 ; rent, 248 ; see Clothes 

Garstang, 152 n. 

Gathas, 61 

Gebal, 171 

Geese for tke dead, 158 f., 199 

Gehenna, 107 

Genius, 70, 155 

Germans, 65 

Ghosts, 5, 7-9, 27, 32, 36, 71, 74-77, 
85-93, io 4 f«» J 4-6 f-> 203-206, 
208, 212, 221, 237, 256; see 
Spirits appear 

Gifts, see Offerings 

Giles, H. A., 16 n., 17 n. 

Gilgamesh, 151, 204, 205, 206, 
208, 210, 215, 216 f., 219, 220, 
221, 222, 231; Epic of, 204, 
208 n., 210, 215 f., 218 {., 
221 n., 231 

Gimil-Sin, 223 f., 225 

Giraldus, 84 

Gizeh, 186 

Gladiatorial games at funerals, 
136 

Glaphyra, 237 

Glorious one = spirit, 156, 160 

Goats as sacrifices, 199 

God, in Chinese religion, 39; Indo- 
European names, 67; in O. T. 
see Yahweh; in teaching of 
Jesus, 290-292; Father of 
Jesus, 290; Father of all men, 
290; meaning of fatherhood, 
291 f . ; love of, 292, 294 f. 

Gods, help against evil spirits, 208, 
212, 226 ; bring men back from 
Sheol, 221 f. ; do not rule in 
Sheol, 208 ; can empty Sheol, 
223 

Gog, 60 

Goidelic Celts, 64 

Gold, with dead, 125, 132, 180; see 
Treasure 

Golden Age, 108, 171 

Golther, W., 69 n. 

Gorgons, 87 

Goths, 71 

Grain, for the dead, 79, 137, 159, 
199 

Grandfathers, title of dead, 71, 114, 
115, 142, 148 f., 150 

Granger, F., 69 n., 97 n., 103 n., 
104 n., 122 



Graves, 7, 12, 44 f., 130 f., 183, 
251 ; dwelling place of spirits, 
see Spirits; places of cult, 102, 

140, 194, 251; of heroes, 102; 
protected by stones, 207; en- 
closed, 209 ; as holy places of 
Yahweh, 261 ; unclean, 252, 
273 ; see Burial, Tombs 

Grave-court, 45 

Grave-hall, 45 

Gravestone, 22, 39, 45, 75, 203; 
see Stones 

Great Pyramid, 169, 185 f. 

Great Russians, 62, 115, 133 

Greeks, 63, 69, 70, 72, 73, 74, 76, 
77, 82, 86, 87, 90, 91, 93, 96, 
99-103, 105, 109, no, 112, 113, 
114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 
120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 
126, 127, 129, 130, 131, 132, 134, 

135, 136, 137, 138, I39> HO, 

141, 145, 146, 149, 150; in- 
fluence on Judaism, 285-289 

Griineisen, 232 n. 
Guerinot, 232 n. 
Gummere, F. B., 69 n. 
Gunkel, 241 n. 

Habakkuk, 268 

Hades, 74, 78, 81, 87, 89, 92, 93, 
99, 105-107, 123 ; see Aralu, 
Dewat, Orcus, Sheol 

Hadrian, 7 

Hair cut in mourning, n, 131, 208, 
249; loosed in mourning, 44, 
117 

Halloween, 147 

Hallstatt, 127, 133 

Hamaspathmaedaya, 72, 146 

Haoma, 116 

Happiness the measure of good- 
ness, 278 

Hardedef, 169 

Hares, possessed, 98 

Harkhuf, 159, 166 

Harper, Song of, 168 

Harpies, 74, 87, 95 

Harrison, J. E., 69 n., 78 n., 87 n., 
97 n., 99 n., 146 

Hartland, E. S., 120 

Hathor, 176 

Hatshepsut, 195 

Haunted House, 88 

Haupt, 206 

Havgan, 106 

Head, covered in mourning, 10, 249 



INDEX 



315 



Heart, seat of soul, 70, 201, 233 
Hearth as place of sacrifice, 141 
Heaven, 37, 39, 41, 52, 67, 128, 172- 

175; see Avallon, Elysium 

Paradise 
Hebrews, 200, 203 
Hebron, 251 
Hector, 8, 118 
Heir, sacrifices to ancestors, 225; 

see Son 
Hekate, 74, 77, 123 
Heliopolis, 172 f. 
Hell, 107, 112, 219, 276; see Tar- 
tarus, Gehenna 
Hellenists, see Alexandrian school 
Henderson, G., 69 n., 75 n., 96 n. 
Hepzefi, 198 
Heraclitus, 100 
Herakles, 78 
Hermes, 77, 123 
Herodotus, 80, 81 n., 96, 122, 124, 

162, 180, 185, 224 
Heroes, 102 f., 252; worship of, 

42 f., 102 f., 115, 176 f. 
Hesiod, 77, 112, 123 
Hezekiah, 246 
High Ruler, 39 
Hilprecht, 216 
Hindus, 60, 69, 72, 74, 75, 76, 80, 

82, 85, 90, 93, 96, 98, 107, 108, 

112, 114, 115, 116, 120, 

121, 123, 124, 130, 131, 137, 

138, 139, 141, 143, 144, 145, 

146, 148, 149 
History of the South, 34 
Hittites, 61 
Hole, for egress of spirit, 2 f., 104, 

160; name of Underworld, 

215, 231, 241; see Pit 
Holiness Code, 268, 276 
Holy, 253; of holies, 261 
Homer, 64, 69, 70, 78, 90, 91, 105, 

112, 122 f., 129 f., 135; see 

Iliad, Odyssey 
Homoeopathic remedies, 229 
Honey for the dead, 13, 97, 132, 

137 f., 165, 199, 225 
Hopkins, E. W., 17 n., 68 n., 124 n., 

129 n. 
Horace, 103, 151 
Horus, 158, 171, 178, 192; eye of, 

171, 192 
Hosea, 268 
Hotephiryakhet, 182 
Houses abandoned to the dead, 44, 

50 



Hou-tsi, 43 
Hrihor, 166 
Hrozny, F., 61 
Hsiao-king, 41 n. 
Huber, 224 
Hun, 19 
Huns, 19, 65 
Huts, 45 
Hyenas, 25 
Hypnotism, 4, 29, 82 

Ibi-Sin, 223, 225 

Ibn-Dustah, 127 

Ibn-Fadhlan, 127, 134 

Ibzan, 252 

Icelanders, 65 

I-li, 17, 46 

Iliad, 74 n., 76 n., 78 n., 81 n., 

87 n-, 93, 95 n-> 117-119, 123, 
127, 132, 136 

Images occupied by spirits, 75, 
160 f., 165, 169, 184, 188, 203, 
228, 235; of things for the 
dead, 48, 158, 189-192, 251 

Imhotep, 169, 176 

Imitations, see substitutes 

Immortality, in primitive religion, 
2-4, 208; in China, 18 f. ; 
among Indo-Europeans, 68-72; 
in Egypt, 154-157; among 
Semites, 201 ; among Babylo- 
nians, 211 ff.; in Israel, 233; 
denied by Prophets and Law, 
2 73> 2 75 f- '■> i n Judaism, 280- 
289 ; denied by resurrection, 
283-285; in Greek thought, 99- 
101, 285-289; combined with 
resurrection, 286-288; theories 
in time of Christ, 288 f. ; in 
the teaching of Jesus, 290-307 ; 
in Christian Church, 288, 
297 f ., 306 f. ; see Future life 

Impersonator, 28, 49, 54, 80, 122 

Implements for dead, 119, 133, 135, 
251 

Incense, 52, 157, 176, 199, 209, 254 

Incubi, 90 

India, see Hindus 

Individualism, 276 f. 

Indo-Europeans, distribution and 
characteristics, 60 ; primitive 
civilisation, 66 

Indra, 67, 112 

Inferi, 70, 141, 145 

Insanity, see Spirits obsess men 

Inspiration, see spirits possess men 



3i6 



INDEX 



Intef, 156, 169 

Invitation to ancestors, 148 

Invocation of gods against spirits, 

226 
Invoker, 57 
Io, 87 
Ionians, 63 
Iranians, 60 
Irish, 64 
Irkalla, 218 
Isaiah, chaps. 1-32, 268 ; chaps, 24- 

27, 283 ; chaps. 40-55, 268 
Ishtar, 207 n., 215, 216, 217, 218, 

219, 220, 221 n., 222 
Isidore, 71, 90 n. 
Isis, 158, 171, 183, 196 
Islands of Blessed, in 

Jackals, 25 

Jackson, A. V. W., 68 n. 

Jacob, 245 

Jacobus, M. W., ix 

Jade, 52, 53 

Jair, 252 

James, 302, 303 

Jars as coffins, 77, 121, 224 

Jastrow, 10 f., 201 n., 203, 208 n., 
209 n., 212 n., 215, 225 n., 
229 n., 248 f. 

Jensen, 215, 217, 222 n. 

Jesus, religious experience, 290; 
unique sonship, 290; taught 
fatherhood of God, 290 f. ; 
revealed love of God, 292; 
taught men are sons of God, 
290-293 ; taught value of soul, 
292 f. ; taught immortality, 
293-297 ; attitude toward Sad- 
ducees, 294 f. ; toward Phari- 
sees, 295 ; toward Alexandri- 
ans, 295 f. ; teaching about 
resurrection, 295-297; highest 
teaching on immortality, 297 ; 
his death, 299 ; his resurrec- 
tion, 298-307 

Jequier, 153 n., 191 

Jeremiah, 237, 268, 274, 277 

Jeremias, 206, 215, 217, 219, 221 

Jevons, 11, 253 n. 

Jewelry with dead, 47, 53, 119, 
180, 224; see Ornaments, 
Treasures 

Jinn, 202, 203, 205 

Joanna, 301 

Job, 278 f., 280-283 

John, 303 f. 



Jordanis, 71 

Joseph, 31 n., 245, 252, 260 

Josephus, 177, 237, 254, 286 

Josiah, 256 

Judas Maccabeus, 237 

Judgment, Day of, 287 f., 298 

Jugo-Slavs, 62 

Jullian, C, 139 

Juno, 70 

Ka, 2, 5, 70, 155 f., 158 

Kadesh, 252 

Kadhosh, 253 

Kamphausen, 9 

K'ang Tzu-kao, 48 

Karma, 98 

Kautzsch, 287 n. 

Ker, 70, 77, 78, 146 

Kerberos, 123, 138 

Khafre, 186 

Kheti, 195 

Khonsu, 161, 164 f. 

Khu, 156 

Khufu, 169, 185 

Kigal, 215 f. 

King of Underworld, 171 f., 218, 

243 

King, L. W., 212 n., 216, 221 n., 
225 n., 226 n. 

Kings, deified during life, 175 f., 
223 ; after death, 175 f., 223, 
225 f., 252; life in other 
world, 37 f., 157 f., 174 

Korah, 241 

Koran, see Qur'an 

Krauss, F. S., 69 n. 

Kiichler, 212 n. 

Kuei, 18, 38 

Kuei-shen, 18, 39 

Labartu, 213 

Lacau, 183 

Ladder of sun-god, 173 

Laments, 13, 20, 44, 57, 117, 118, 

196, 210, 225, 255 f. 
Lamps for the dead, 251 ; see Fires, 

Lights 
Langdon, 212 n., 224 n., 225 n. 
Larentalia, 71, 146 f. 
Lares, 70, 78, 130, 146 
Larvce, 71, 146 
Lascowski, 98 
Lasicius, 98, 147 
Law of Twelve Tables, 125, 127, 

130 
Laying out of corpse, 119, 120 



INDEX 



3 T 7 



Lebadea, 97 

Leger, L., 69 n. 

Legge, J., 17 n., 21 n., 37 n., 55 n. 

Lehraann, E., 68 n. 

Lekythoi, 135 

Lemuria, 138, 146, 149 

Letters, sent to the dead, 92, 164 

Letts, 62, 63 

Levirate marriage, 294 

Levitation, 4, 32 

Leyrer, 9 

Libations, see water, milk, beer, 
wine, liquors; 13, 137 f., 139 f., 
143 f., 199, 225 f., 230 f. 

Life, length desired, 264 f. 

Lights for dead, 120, 144; see 
Fires, Lamps 

Lightning, 68 

Li-ki, 16, 17 n., 19, 38, 42, 46, 48, 

5i» 52, 56, 58 
Lily Lake, 173 
Lippert, 97 n. 
Liquors, distilled, 133 
Lithuanians, 62, 63, 97, 127, 133, 

142, 145, 148, 150 
Little Russians, 62 
Livy, 79 n. 
Lods, 232 n. 
Lohr, 267 n. 
Lots, 23, 75 
Loutrophoros, 134 
Lucan, 83, 92, 102, 106 
Lucian, 14, 88, 151. 
Luke, 299, 301, 303 
Lun-yu, 17, 48 n. 

Macbain, A., 69 n., 124 n. 

Maccabees IV, 286 

Macculloch, J. A., 69 n., 85 n., 

96 n., 133 n., 140 n., 147 n. 
Mace, 152 n. 
Maciver, 152 n. 
Macrobius, 105 
Maelduin, voyage of, 95 
Maelsuthain, 96 
Magi, 122, 124 
Magic, sympathetic 190; for the 

dead, 166, 172; objects in 

graves. 
Mahabhdrata, 60, 76, 124 
Maleki, 63 

Mammetu, 219 f., 222 
Manasseh, 256 
Manes, 70, 73, 75, 78, 79, 106, 114- 

116, 139, 143, 145 f. 
Manetho, 152, 177 



Mannhardt, J. W. E., 69 n. 

Manu, Laws of, 60, 114, 137 

Manx, 64 

Marduk, 221, 226-228 

Margoliouth, 232 n., 254 n. 

Mariette, 153 

Mark, 298, 300, 301, 303 

Marriage with dead, 92, 134 

Mary Magdalene, 303 

Masks, 75, 103, 122 

Maspero, 153, 201 n. 

Masseba, 203 235, 273 

Ma'staba, 160, 184, 188, 189 

Mas'udi, 127, 134 

"Materialisation" of spirits, 34, 85 

Matthew, 300 303 

Mausolea, 44, 131 

Mead for the dead, 138 

Meal for the dead, 13, 137 

Meat for the dead, 198 

Mediterranean, sea, 216, 217; race, 
63, 70 

Mediums, 29, 59, 82, 84, 85, 165, 
203, 221, 259 

Mekhu, 178 

Meletius, 63 

Melissa, 80, 81 

Men, the children of God, 291 f. 

Mencius, 17, 51 

Menecius, J., 63, 69 n., 97, 142, 148, 
150 

Menes, 152, 169, 184 

Menelaus, 109 

Menkure, 186 

Mercer, 224 n. 

Merneptah, 193 

Messiah, 287 

Metempsychosis, see Transmigra- 
tion 

Meyer, E., 68 n., 129 ; E. H., 69 n. 

Micah, 268 

Milk for the dead, 13, 137 f., 199, 
209 

Mind-reading, 30, 82 

Minerva, 69 

Ming, 19, 38 

Ming dynasty tombs, 45 

Minister of Ritual, 56 

Miracles, 31 

Miriam, 252, 260 

Mirrors, for the dead, 224 

Mitanni, 62 

Mithra, 62 

Models, see images 

Money with dead, 44, 119 

Monolatry, 257 f. 



3i8 



INDEX 



Monotheism, 257 f., 269 

Montenegrins, 62 

Moon, 67 

Moore, C. H., 69 n.; G. F., 17 n., 

68 n. 
Morality and Sacrifice, 56 
Moravians, 62 
Moret, 161 
Mortuary chapel, 160, 187, 189, 

194, 197 
Mosaism, 257 
Motion of spirit, 5 
Motor-antomatism, 6 
Moulton, J. H., 68 n. 
Mound, 45, 130, 251; see Tumulus 
Mourners, professional, 117, 196, 

255 
Mourning, rites of, 41, 50, 117, 118, 
195 f., 208, 248-250, 255, 262 f. ; 
made one unclean, 262 f. ; for- 
bidden by Prophets and Law, 

273 

Mouth, objects placed in, 44, 119 

Mu, 45 

Much, R., 128 

Miiller, S., 128; W. M., 157, 169 n. 

Muhammad, 202 

Mummy, 12, 160, 163, 165, 168, 
179-181 ; restoration of, 166; 
of Kings, 179 f. 

Mundus, 105 f., 141 ; see Trench 

Music, for the dead, 28, 53 ; instru- 
ments of, 48 

Mut, 158 

Mycenaean age, 103, 121, 125, 131 

Nabal, 266 

Naboth, 266 

Nahum, 268 

Nakedness, 9, 19, 208, 248 

Name, controls demon, 230 

Namtaru, 218 f. 

Naram-Sin, 223 

Nature-gods of Indo-European, 67 

Nav, 107 

Naville, 154, 157 n., 164 

Nazirites, 250, 253, 274 

Necromancy, 13, 88, 150 f., 210, 

221, 231, 256, 259 
Neferhotep, 156 
Nefesh, 200 f., 202, 203, 232 f., 253, 

270 
Nekhtioker, 169 
Nekonekh, 199 
Nekues, 70 



Neolithic age, 2, 131, 135 

Ner, 221 

Nergal, 218, 231 

Nero, 88 

Nesha, 161 

Newberry 188 n. 

Nezemib, 182, 197 

Nibelungenlied, 128 

Night, time when ghosts appear, 

86, 89 
Ninth day after burial, 142-145 
Nirvana, 100 
Noah, 219 

Nodding images, 161 
Noldeke, 202 n., 204 n., 207 n., 

209 n. 
Noon, time when ghosts appear, 85, 

89 m 
Norwegians, 65 
Nourse, E. E., ix 
Novendialis, 143 
Nowack, 235 
Numa, 125 



Obadiah, 268 

'Obh, 236 

Obsession, see Spirits obsess 

Odoacer, 65 

Odhin, in 

Odysseus, 73, 86, 87, 90, in, 137, 

141, 150 
Odyssey, 73, 74 n., 81 n., 86, 90, 

105, 106, 109, ii2, 123, 137, 

141, 150 
CEdipus, 87 
Oefele, 212 n. 

Offerings, in grave, 3, 12 f., 37, 44, 
• 46, 131, 158 f., 184, 201, 233, 

239. 254; on grave, 45, 51, 

102 f., 137-140, 158 f., 197- 

199, 212, 225 f., 239, 254; for 

dead who have no kin, 116; 

see Sacrifice; restriction of, 

125, 132, 135 
Oil for the dead, 132 
Ointment for dead, 159, 224 
Onias, 237 
Orcus, 76, 105 f., 125, 143; see 

Hades 
Ormazd, 280 
Ornaments with dead, 12, 119, 131, 

133. i35» 167, 189, 193 f., 251; 

see Jewelry 
Orphism, 99 f., 105 



INDEX 



3i9 



Osiris, 158 f., 169, 171 f., 173, 183, 
192, 196; identified with wor- 
shipper, 172, 174, 181; his re- 
ligion, 169 f., 174 

Os resectum, 103, 126 

Otho, 89 

Ovid, 78, 89, 138, 146 

Owls, 25 ; 203 f., 205, 212 n. 

Paleolithic cave-dwellers, 2 

Palettes for dead, 189 

Pandora, 77 

P'an-keng, 23 

Papias, 301 

Papyrus, Abbott, 193 

Paradise, 95, 107-m, 219, 287; see 

Elysium, Heaven, Valhalla 
Parents, 71 ; see Ancestors 
Parsees, 61, 122 
Patriarchal organization, 67 
Patroclus, 6, 78, 81, 93, 117, 127, 

131, 136 
Paul, 284, 296 f., 298, 299 f., 302, 

303> 305 

Pausanias, 81 n., 132, 140 

Paynozem I, 166 

Pectorals on mummies, 192 

Pelasgians, 63 

Penelope, 81 

Pepi I, 173 f; II, 179 

Perfume for dead, 179 

Periander, 80, 81 

Perkunas, 68 

Persians, 60, 69, 72, 73, 74, 77, 86, 
91, 93, 108, 109, 112, 115, 
116, 121, 124, 126, 137, 139, 
144, 148, 149 ; influence on 
Jews, 280 f. 

Personators, see Impersonator, 28 

Peter, 298, 299, 301, 302; of Dus- 
burg, 69 n., 127 

Peters, J. P., 201 n., 224 n. 

Petrie, W. F., 152 n., 185 

Pharaohs, descended from the sun- 
god, 173, 175 

Pharisees, 277, 284 

Pheasants, 26 

Phigalia, 81 

Philo, Alexandrinus, 286; Byblius, 

Phocion, 129 
Phrygians, 61 
Pinda 114, 138, 148 
Pindar, 101 
Pitdcha, 85 



Piso, 151 

Pit, = Underworld, 241, 245 f. ; see 

Trench 
Pitdras, 69, 71, 90, 91, 108, 114 f., 

124, 138, 144, 148 
Pithoi, 121 
Places of sacrifice to dead, 140-142, 

194 f. ; see Graves 
Planchette, 23 

Plants occupied by spirits, 76 
Plato, 77, 99, 101, 130, 163, 285 f., 

295 
Plautus, 95 
Pliny, 88, 97, 125, 138 
Plutarch, 79 n., 96, 106, 118, 130, 

171 
Pneuma, 69 
P'o, 19, 20, 38 
Poles, 62 
Polybius, 80 n. 
Polydaemonism, 15, 68 
Polydorus, 76, 103, 136 
Polyxene, 134 

Pomponius Mela, 106, 127, 132 
Porter, see Watchman, Kerberos 
Possession by spirits, 6, 27, 28, 80- 

Potitii, 79 

Praeneste, 75 

Praetorius, M., 63, 69 n. 

Prayer, to the dead, 13, 28, 56, 144, 
147-150, 202, 209, 255; for the 
dead, 73, 158 f. ; officer of, 28 

Prediction, see Foreboding 

Prescriptions for sick, 226 

Preta, 85, 144 

Priam, 118 

Priests, of the dead, 197; abstain 
from mourning, 249, 253, 274 

Procession, funeral, 121, 122 

Propertius, 89 

Prophets, of Israel, 29, 268 f. ; for- 
bidden to mourn, 274 

Proetus, 109 

Prussians, 62, 63, 127, 142, 145 

Psalms, 286 

Psuche, 69, 91 

Psychomancy, see Necromancy 

Ptahshepses, 159 

Ptolemy, 96 

Pit, 22 

Punishments, 265, 275, 287 f., 298 

Purim, 146 

Pur-Sin, 223, 225 

Pushan, 108 



320 



INDEX 



Pwyll, 92, 106 
Pyramidion, 182, 186, 192 
Pyramids, 168 f., 172, 184-188; 
emblem of sun, 186; Texts in, 

i53» 155, 157, 163, i7i> 

173 f., 182, 187, 192 
Pythagoras, 100, 102, 138, 163 
Pythia, 83 

Quibel, 152 n. 

Quickener of the dead, 221, 246 

Quintilian, 94 

Qur'an, 202 

Rachel's grave, 235, 238, 252, 260 

Ramadan, 250 

Ramah, 252 

Ramayana, 60, 72, 98, 123 

Ramses, II, 166, 180, 193; III, 180; 
IX, 193 

Rats, 25 

Rawlinson, 225 

Re, 109, 158 f., 171 f., 173, 174 f., 
186; united with worshipper, 
173 f., 176, 195 

Rebirth, 26 ; see Transmigration 

Recall of soul, 3, 18, 44, 117, 167 

Reflection, 6 

Re-incarnation, see Animals, 
Transmigration 

Relics, 7 

Renouf, 154 

Rephaim, 235, 237 

Request to ancestors to depart, 149 

Resurrection, 26, 163, 166, 172 f., 
221-223, 246 f., 275, 280-285, 
294-297 

Resurrection of Jesus, predicted by 
him, 298 ; part of earliest 
Christian teaching, 299 f., 302; 
proved by empty tomb, 300-302 ; 
proved by appearances, 302- 
306; "swoon theory," 299; 
"vision theory," 304; "fraud 
theory," 304; culmination of 
his life and teaching, 306 

Retribution, limited to present life, 
265, 275 f. ; collective, 265- 
267, 276-279; individual, 276- 
279; see Rewards, Punish- 
ments 

Revenant, 18 

Rewards, 9, 265, 275, 287 f., 298 ; 
see Retribution 

Rhadamanthus, 109 

Rhesus, 103 



Rhys, J., 69 n., 106 n. 

Rice for dead, 120, 138 

Ridgeway, W., 129 

Rig Veda, 60, 68 n., 72, 76, 108, 112, 
123 f., 131, 149 

Ritual texts for the dead, 181 

Rock tombs, 188 f. 

Rogers, 203 n. 

Rohde, E., 69 n., 74 n., 97 n., 103 n., 
121-123, 128, 135, 138, 143, 151 

Romans, 64, 70, 73, 75, 76, 78, 80, 
83, 89, 94, 95, 97, 103, 104, 
105, no, in, 114, 115, 
116, 122, 125, 126, 127, 130, 131, 

135, 136, 137, 138, 139, Ho, 
141, 142, 143, 145, 146, 149 

Romulus, 79 

Rosetta Stone, 154 

Ross, J., 17 n. 

Ruah, 201 f., 202, 233, 270 

Ruthenians, 62 

Sackcloth in mourning, 44, 50, 248 

Sacrifice, of animals, 12 f., 28, 41, 
43 , 49, 5i f-> 55 f-> 73, 78, 80, 
97 *•> i3i-i35> 137, 140, 197- 
199, 209, 261; human, 47, 131- 
134, 189 f . ; originated in cult 
of the dead, 261 ; motive for, 
56, 72, 78; relation to morality, 
56 ; to Heaven, 52 ; to Heaven 
and Earth, 41 ; see Offerings 

Sadducees, 277 f., 284, 294 f. 

Saints, 7 

Sakkara, 184 

Salt, 78 

Samhain feast, 146 

Samuel, ghost of, 151, 223, 231, 233, 
245, 276 f. 

Sandals, removed in mourning, 249 

Sarcophagi, 121, 182 f., 188 

Sarganisharri, 223 

Satan, 228, 280 

Satem, group of languages, 61 

Sati of widows, 131 

Saul, 236 f., 245, 249, 256, 259 f., 
266 

Saussaye, P. D. C. de la, 69 n. 

Sayings of Confucius, 17, 19 

Scarabs, 192 

Scepticism in regard to immortal- 
ity, 19, 156 f. 

Schafer, 153 

Schrader, O., 68 n., 109, 134 

Schwally, 9, 232 n., 235 

Scythians, 60, 124 



INDEX 



321 



Seance, 33 

Sebni, 178 

Second-sight, 84 

Seeing ghosts dangerous, 10, 89 

Seers, 203 

Sejn, P. V., 118, 119, 136, 141 f., 

H9 

Semites, 66', conception of spirits, 
200-210 

Senmut, 158 f. 

Sennacherib, 236 

Serbians, 62 

Serdab, 160 

Serpents, see Snakes 

Servius, 130 

Sesostris III, 176 

Set, 171 

Sethe, 153, 176 n., 187 

Seti I, 166, 168, 180 

Seven heavens, 217 

Shades, 2, 70 

Shadow, i, 6, 71, 91, 156, 205 

Shahath, 241 

Shamashshumukin, 206 

Shang-ti, 39 

Shechem, 252 

She-chi, 39 

Sheep as sacrifices, 74, 132, 137, 
199 

Shelf for offerings to dead, 45, 49, 
194 

Shen, 18, 38, 39 

Shen-ch'i, 39 

Shen-kuei, 18 

Shen-nung, 43 

Sheol, 104, 107, 170, 207, 215-223, 
240-247, 269; names for, 215- 
241 ; deep in earth, 215 f., 241 ; 
a cavern, 214 f., 241 ; entrance 
in west, 216, 241 ; reached by 
crossing sea, 216, 241; seven 
divisions, 217, 242; gates of, 
170, 217, 220, 242; watchman 
of, 218-222, 242; like grave, 
218, 243; dark, 218, 243; dusty, 
218, 243; king of, 171 f., 218, 
243 ; demons of, 218, 243 f., 
approached in illness, 220, 
222, 246, 286 ; escaped by re- 
turn to health, 221 f., 246 f., 
286; inevitable, 218 f., 244; no 
return from, 221, 246; all 
classes there, 220 f., 245 f . ; life 
similar to earth, 221 ; distinc- 
tions in, 219, 245; no distinc- 
tions of character, 219, 245; 



outside the authority of Yah- 
weh, 263 f. ; no worship of 
Yahweh, 264, 271, 275 f . ; no 
retribution, 265 ; unchanged by 
early Yahwism, 264; con- 
scious existence ceases, 270, 
281-283 ; is eternal sleep, 272, 
278, 281, 283; under Yahweh's 
rule, 274 f . ; as punishment for 
wicked only, 283 ; righteous es- 
cape by resurrection, 282-285; 
emptied of all the dead, 283 f . ; 
not entered by righteous, 286- 
289; retribution in, 287 

Shih, 23 

Shi-king, 16, 20 n., 21 n., 29 n., 
37, 38 n., 52 n., 53 n., 55 n., 

58 
Shou, 51, 53 

Shrines, ancestral, 42, 49 
Shu-king, 16, 23 n., 37 n., 41, 49 n., 

50 n., 52 n. 
Shun, 22, 23, 49, 51, 52 
Sibyls, 83 
Sibylline Books, 84 
Sickness, brings one near Sheol, 

220, 222, 246 
Sihler, E. G., 69 n. 
Silk, 47, 52, 53, 57 
Sinai, 152 f., 176, 261 
Sincerity in sacrifice, 56 
Singing, 57 
Sinuhe, 195 
Sirens, 95 
Sirius, 152 

Sixth day after burial, 142-145 
Skull, seat of spirit, 103 f., 205; 

trepanned, 3 
Sky, see Heaven 
Slaves buried with master, 47, 49, 

131-134 
Slavonians, 62 
Slavs, 62, 63, 71, 79, 94, 97, 98, 

104, 106, 107, 114, 115, 118, 

119, 120, 124, 126, 127, 128, 

130, 133, 134, 136, 140, 141, 

142, 143, 145, 148, 149, 150 
Sleep, 3, 17, 81, 84, 202 
Slovaks, 62 
Slovenes, 62 
Smith, H. P., 243, 262; S. A., 215; 

W. R., 10 
Smoke, 2, 6, 70, 91 
Snakes, 25, 96, 97, 98, 162, 203 
Snefru, 176, 185 
Socrates, 101 



322 



INDEX 



Solar, barque, 158; immortality, 
172, 187 

Solidarity of clan, 265, 276 

Solmsen, F., 98 n. 

Solon, 93, 118 

Soma, 108, U2, 116 

Son, duty of sacrificing, 13, 72 f., 
79, 225, 254; of God, 290-293; 
of Man, 287; of Re, 172, 175 

Song of Harper, 156 

Soped, 176 

Sophocles, 93, 101 

Sothic cycle, 152 

Soul, in primitive religion, 1 f . ; in 
China, 17 f. 38; among Indo- 
Europeans, 69 f. ; in Egypt, 
154-156; among Semites, 200 
f. ; in Israel, 232 f. ; etymology 
of word, 71 ; value for Jesus, 
292 f. ; see Spirit. 

Soul-tower, 45 

Sozomen, 251 

Spencer, Herbert, 14 

Spirit of Yahweh, 236, 270 

Spirits of the dead, primitive con- 
ception, 2-9; in China, 18-39; 
among Indo-Europeans, 69- 
113, among Greeks, 99-101, 
285-289; in Egypt, 156-178; 
among Semites, 201-208; in 
Babylonia, 211-223; early He- 
brew conceptions; 233-239; in 
early Yahwism, 257; in teach- 
ing of Prophets, 269-273 ; 
in Judaism, 280-289; in teach- 
ing of Jesus, 293-298; names 
for, 2, 18, 69, 154-156, 200 f. ; 
existence after death, 2, 18, 
156 f., 201 f., 233; relation to 
corpse, 7, 35, 163, 165, 205, 232, 
238, 295; need food, 2, 20, 54, 
72 f., itf-15% 224, 233; powers 
retained, 4, 19, 54, 72, 1 57-1 59, 
202, 233 f. ; powers gained, 5, 
20, 73, I59" ][ 65i 202-205, 234- 
237; motion, 5, 73, 159 f., 
202 f. ; control of objects, 5, 
21-24, 75, 160-162, 203, 228, 235, 
see Images; write communica- 
tions, 23 ; occupy plants or 
animals, 5, 24, 76, 94-102, 
162 f., 203, 227 f., 235; ani- 
mate dead bodies, 26, 163 ; re- 
born in new bodies, 26, 163 ; 
obsess the living, 5, 27 f., 76, 
163-165, 203, 212-215, 218, 



235 f . ; possess the living, 27, 
80-85, J 65, 203, 235 f. ; appear 
to men, 4, 32, 85-90, 204 f., 
237; possess superior knowl- 
edge, 4, 6, 19, 20, 28, 31, 90, 
233 f., 236; bless the living, 
90-91, 149, 159, 234; injure the 
living, 76-80, 164, 204, 211-215, 
234; punish violation of 
tombs, 165, 167 f . ; punish neg- 
lect of offerings, 225 ; punish 
violation of custom, 79; pow- 
ers lost, 6, 48, 91 f., 166, 205, 
2 34, 237 f. ; unsubstantial char- 
acter, 6, 7, 19, 71, 91, 205, 238, 
261, 275; feeble voices, 86; 
rousing from death, 144, 166; 
without habitation, 93 f., 
203 f., 214 f., see Exposure; 
dwell in grave, 36, 102-104, 
165-169, 205, see Grave; dwell 
in Underworld, 104-107, 169- 
172, 207; dwell in Sky, 37 f., 
128, 172-175, 207; dwell in 
Paradise, 95, 107-111, 207; 
dwell in Tartarus, 101, m, 
113; deified, 9, 39-43, 114, 175- 
178, 223 f., 258; vitality denied 
by Prophets, 268-273 ; worship 
forbidden by Yahweh, 273 ; 
resurrection asserted by Phari- 
sees, 280-285; immortality 
taught by Alexandrians, 285- 
289; immortality taught by 
Jesus, 293 ; see Soul 

Spirits of Heaven and of Earth, 40 

Sraddha, 143, 146 

Stade, 10, 232 n., 235 

State cult of dead, 115 

Statues, see images 

Steindorff, 161 n. 

Sticks, moved by spirits, 5, 24 

Stone, occupied by spirits, 2, 5, 22, 
66, 75, 203, 209, 273; see 
Gravestone, Spirits occupy ob- 
jects 

Strabo, 122 

Streck, 226 

Sub-conscious, 6 

Substitutes for offerings in graves, 

44, 47, 49 f-> 134 f-i 158, 189- 

192 
Succubi, 90 
Suetonius, 88 n. 
Suicides, 237; of wives, 47; burial 

refused, 94 



INDEX 



323 



Sulla, 126 

Sumerians, 211, 214, 215, 230 

Sun, 67, 171 ; descends into Under- 
world, 169 f., 174, 216, 242; 
rising type of resurrection, 173 

Superi, 141 

Swearing by the dead, 202 

Swedes, 65 

Sweeping out of spirits, 150 

Swine, possessed by spirits, 227; 
for sacrifices, 79, 137 

Swoons, 3, 17 

Tablet, ancestral, 22, 23, 37, 39, 42, 

44, 45, 46, 49, 52, 55, 56; of 

Heaven, 52 
Tabu, see Corpse, Death, Mourn- 
ing, Uncleanness 
Tacitus, 128 
Ta-hsioh, 17 
Talisman, 5 
Talks of Confucius, 19 
Talmud, 284 
Target practice, 54 
Tartarus, 101, 111-113 
Tarquinius Priscus, 84 
Tattooing for the dead, 11, 249 
Telepathy, 6, 82 
Telesthesia, 6, 82 
Tell el-Amarna Letters, 175 
Temple, ancestral, 42 f., 46, 49, 52, 

55, 187, 189, 194 f. 
Ten-day feast after cremation, 143 
Tennyson, no 
Teraphim, 235 
Tertullian, 81, 94, 104 
Teti, 173 
Tetisheri, 197 
Teutons, 65, 85, 90, 104, 107, in, 

126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 

134, 136, 139, 145, 147 
Theoklymenos, 82 
Theos, 71 
Theseus, 103 
Thesprotia, 80 
Thinite dynasties, 152, 178 
Third day after burial, 142-145 
Thirtieth day after burial, 145 
Thompson, 202 n., 203 n., 204 n., 

205 n., 212 n., 213 n., 226 n., 

227 n., 228 n., 229 n. 
Thoth, 158 

Thought-transference, 6 
Thumos, 70 
Thunder-god, 67 
Thureau-Dangin, 224 n. 



Thurlow, E. K., ix 

Thurston, E., 86 n. 

Thutmose, III, 179; IV, 180 

Thuya, 191 

T'ien, 39 

Tiger, 24 

Ti'u, 213 

Tiy, 191 

Toilet articles for the dead, 133, 

189, 224 
Tola, 252 
Tombs, 44 f., 131, 160, 165-169, 

183-189, 197, 201, 224, 233, 

239, 251, 254; destruction of, 

168 f. ; repair of, 169, 177; 

robbery of, 47, 165-170, 180, 

187 f., 191, 193 f., 206 
Tombstone, see Gravestone, Stone 
Tools, 47, 167 
Toothache worm, 213 
Torannos, 67 
Torge, 232 n. 
Torquatus, 103 
Tortoise-shell, 22, 25 
Totemism, 5 
Towers of Silence, 86 
Toys in children's graves, 135 
Translation of men, 219, 244 
Transmigration, 98, 162 f. 
Treasures in graves, 47, 53, 131, 

132, 133, 180, 189, 193, 254; 

see Jewelry, Ornaments, Gold 
Trees, 76, 261 
Trench, sacrificial, 73, 105 f., 141 

151, 261 f. 
Tronis, 140 
Trophonius, 97 
Tso-chuan, 17 

Tubes into graves, 72, 140 
Tullus, 103 

Tumuli, 45, 130, 184; see Mound 
Twentieth day after burial, 143, 

145 

Ulysses, 7, 105 f. ; see Odysseus 

Unburied dead, 8, 27, 36, 85 f., 
93 f., 203 f., 206, 212, 220, 238, 
245; see Burial 

Unclean, see Corpse, Death, Dis- 
ease, Grave, Mourning 

Underworld, abode of spirits, 74, 
80, 83, 104-107, 123, 125, 137, 
169-172, 241; see Dewat, 
Hades, Hell, Orcus, Sheol 

Uni, 182 

Unis, 166, 174, 187 



324 



INDEX 



Unnatural deaths, 203, 212 

Untimely deaths, 4, 85 f., 204 

Upanishads, 60 

Ur, dynasty of, 223 

Ur-Engur, 223 f. 

Urim and Thummim, 260 

Usener, H., 68 n., 98 n., 123 

Ushebtis, 191 f. 

Utensils, 12 

Ut-napishtim, 216 f., 219 

Utukku, 202 

Valerius Maximus, 92, 102, 106 

Valhalla, 109, in 

Valkyries, 74, in 

Vampires, 212 

Varuna, 62 

Vases, decorated, 135 

Vatinius, 151 

Vedas, 69, 90, 98, 107, 114, 123, 126, 

138 
Vegetables, 53 
Vergil, 76, 81, 83, 97, 106 
Veselovskij, A. N., 109 
Vessels in graves, 47, 133-135, 224, 

251 ; broken for the dead, 209, 

251 
Vielona, 109, 147 
Violent deaths, 85, 86, 204 
Volves, 85 

Wail, 209 ; see Lament 

Wake, 120 

Warren, 215 

Water for dead, 13, 53, 90, 120, 
137 f., 140, 143 f., 166, 197, 
199, 206, 209, 220, 225 f., 
230 f. ; poured out at death, 
116; sprinkled on dying, 116, 
222; holy, 222; of life, 159, 
219 f., 222, 287; of death, 217, 
242 

Weapons for the dead, 12, 27, 47, 
66, 119, 131, 133, i35» 189, 224, 
251 

Weicker, G., 95 n., 217 n. 

Wellhausen, 202, 203 n., 205 n., 
206 n., 207 n., 208 n., 209 n. 

Welsh, 64, 106, no 

Wen, 21, 37, 38, 42, 51 

Wends, 62, 133 f. 

Weshptah, 182 

West = Underworld, 157, 170 f., 
183, 196, 216 f., 241 

Westerners, name for Dead, 170 f., 
183 



Westminster Confession, 297 f. 
White Russians, 62 f., 114 f., 119, 

133, 142, 144, 145, 148 f., 150 
Wild animals for the dead, 199 
Wilde, Lady, 104 n. 
Wilkenson, 181 
Winckler, H., 61 
Wind, name of spirit, 201, 202, 205, 

233, 270; spirits manifested in, 

. 74 
Window, opened at death, 116 
Wine for dead, 13, 52, 73, 79, 

137 f., 140, 189, 199 
Wisdom, Book of, 285, 295 
Wissowa, W., 97 n. 
Witches, 151 
Wives buried with husbands, 47, 

49, 131-134, 189 f. ; in other 

world, 47, 49, 131-134, 157, 

189 
Woden, 74 

Wolves, possessed by spirits, 25, 98 
Women as mediums, 29-35, 2 59 
Words, magic power, 230 
Worship, see Cult 
Writing by mediums, 32 
Written records in graves, 224 
Wu, Emperor, 29, 51, 53, 57; 

medium, 29, 42, 59 

Xenophon, 125 

Yahweh, causes disease, 236; sends 
evil spirit, 236; causes inspira- 
tion, 236; brings up from 
Sheol, 246 ; punishes dead 
through children, 255, 267; at- 
titude toward spirits, 257; 
retribution limited to this 
life, 265; breath in man, 270; 
delivers from Sheol, 286; for- 
bids cult of the dead, 252 f., 
254, 256, 258-263 ; appropri- 
ated functions of spirits, 
259 f. ; absorbed the spirits, 
260; took cult of dead, 260- 
262; tolerated mourning, 
262 f . ; did not rule in Sheol, 
262 f., not worshipped in 
Sheol, 264; no retribution in 
Sheol, 265; dealt with men 
collectively, 265-267, 276; 
righteousness in Prophets, 
269; forbade cult of dead, 
273; forbade mourning, 273 f. ; 
the only god for the Prophets, 



INDEX 



325 



269; power extended to Sheol, 
274 f . ; raises the dead, 281- 
285 

Yama, 78, 107 f., 123, 144 

Yang, principle of universe, 38, 59 

Yang, sacrifice, 58 

Yao, 16, 49 

Yarrow, 23 

Y'hiv, 156 

Yidde'oni, 236 

Yih-king, 16, 2$ 

Yima l 108 f. 



Yin, 38, 52, 59 
Yii, 23, 50 
Yule-log, 147 
Yuya, 191 

Zadok, 277 
Zau, 167, 179 
Zend, 60 
Ziggurat, 184 
Zimmern, 215 
Zoroaster, 60 
Zoser, 176, 184 



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